Kindred

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1979

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapter 5-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

Literary Devices

Time Travel Subgenre

As a literary subset of the science fiction genre, time travel stories have a rich history in both literature and pop culture. Kindred is in direct conversation with previous stories in its genre, most notably Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, which sees an American travel back to Arthurian times and try to use his knowledge of modern technology, only to be stymied by medieval society. Dana’s journey in Kindred is similar, but by highlighting how unsafe time travel is for Black people (or any other historically oppressed people), Butler draws attention to the genre as one that is written by and for the white imagination. In using standard tropes of the genre—not being able to interfere for fear of creating a paradox, for example, or interacting with ancestors in an ironic way—Butler over and again emphasizes the way racism is built into the fabric of American history and the inescapable legacy that this racism has for people living in the present. Butler’s reappropriation of a science fiction conceit allows her to create a postmodern, Black version of a genre that has historically excluded Black narratives, and in doing so, she creates a scathing critique of the genre itself and the society that created it.

The Neo-slave Narrative

Throughout 20th-century American literature, a growing trend toward reconsidering what a slave narrative looks like occurred, with a shift in focus that was meant to emphasize the humanity and dignity of enslaved Africans by presenting fictionalized accounts of their personal lives. Neo-slave narratives are based on antebellum slave narratives written by enslaved people after their emancipation and use fiction as a lens to reconsider the individual trauma of enslavement. Often, the books are inspired by or in direct conversation with the historical record or the actual act of reckoning with the brutality of slavery as a power structure that comes from engaging with history. Toni Morrison’s Beloved, for example, was inspired by Morrison reading of a real woman who killed her children rather than let them be returned to slavery. Kindred is a seminal work in the neo-slave narrative genre, as the science fiction conceit forces Dana, a modern woman, to fully reconsider her personhood and her ability to survive under enslavement; the plot of the novel forces the character into a state of real, felt empathy with her ancestors just as it asks the reader to empathize with the enslaved people on the plantation.

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows something that the characters don’t, leading to an increase in tension or thematic resonance in scenes; in Kindred, though, Dana and Kevin are often put in the same position as the reader since they know what must happen in order for Dana to be born—that Rufus must have children with Alice. This creates a central conflict for Dana, who tries to recuse herself from the situation in order to remain an observer of the past but is forced to actively participate in the trauma that leads to her own existence. Dana’s knowledge puts her in the position of collaborator with Rufus and the power structure of slavery while effectively also putting her in the position of another enslaved person on the property. Her dual role allows her to see the cost of survival during slavery and the compromises that must be made; that she knows what is going to happen is little comfort when she cannot escape the daily, lived experience of an enslaved person. In this way, the dramatic irony that is central to the story becomes another metaphorical rendering of the constant trauma that enslaved people experienced.