discussion

The monster is an imaginary creature that produces horror, disgust, and fear. Monstrosity is explored in depth in Cohen’s essay “Monster Theory”….

An alien can be defined as (1) someone or something unfamiliar, unlike what has previously been known, different from the norm, strange, exotic; (2) someone belonging or owing allegiance to another country; (3) someone or something differing in nature or character to the point of incompatibility, that is, too different to be acceptable.

Alienation can be defined as the withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from a former attachment such as a family, community, or nation; the state or experience of being isolated from a group to which one should belong or an activity in which one should be involved; estrangement.

Xenophobia is fear, hatred, and violence towards outsiders. Xenophobia focuses on perceived difference: the strangeness of the stranger. Xenophobia tends to be motivated by competition over resources (such as women).

What qualities make the Oankali monstrous and alien?

How does Lillith respond to the Oankali? Is she xenophobic? Is the novel as a whole xenophobic, meaning does the author promote xenophobia or does she, in contrast, critique it?

What kinds of alienation does Lillith herself experience? How does she relate to her former life on earth, her captivity with the Oankali, her experimental human community on the ship, and her potential future in a newly seeded earth colony? Is Lillith also a monster and an alien?

How does Octavia Butler bring her sensibilities as an African American woman, particularly her personal experience and historical awareness of race and gender dynamics, to the novel Dawn? How does her vision of the alien build upon and differ from mainstream views?

In what ways does the novel comment upon the American legacy of slavery? In what ways does the novel comment on the history of segregation and the illegality of miscegenation?