{"id":6275,"date":"2010-03-25T03:44:15","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T03:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=6275"},"modified":"2011-03-15T00:30:38","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T00:30:38","slug":"mutants-mudbloods-and-futureheroes-mixed-race-identity-in-contemporary-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=6275","title":{"rendered":"Mutants, mudbloods, and futureheroes: Mixed race identity in contemporary narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mutants, mudbloods, and futureheroes: Mixed race identity in contemporary narrative<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The University of New Mexico
\nMay 2008
\n327 pages
\nPublication Number: AAT 3318087
\nISBN: 9780549676652<\/p>\n

Felecia Rose Caton-Garcia<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy American Studies The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico<\/em><\/p>\n

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the United States is experiencing the expansion of a self-identified biracial, multiracial, and mixed race citizenry.<\/strong> This work examines the dominant tropes operative in the study of mixed race narrative cultural production, specifically film, fiction, and life-writing, in order to historicize and contextualize contemporary cultural production. In particular, this dissertation examines contemporary narratives with regard to the “tragic mulatto<\/a>” trope in US culture throughout the 19th and 20th century and articulates the ways in which the abundance of contemporary work on mixed race both sustains and resists old archetypes and narratives. To this end, a survey of life-writing, fiction, and speculative film and fiction of the past fifteen years is conducted to determine new narrative tropes governing mixed race identity, particularly those identities that deviate from the historical black\/white binary of biracial identity.<\/p>\n

While some texts remain grounded in the idea of the mixed race person as deficient or problematic with regards to race and gender identity development, the dissertation identifies a general turn away from the “tragic mulatto” archetype, and a turn toward the mixed race identity as a holistic hybrid identity that is more than the sum of its parts. The study reveals that contemporary renderings of mixed race identity have become transnational, dynamic, unsettling, and synergistic. Further, the emergent tropes in mixed race narratives suggest hybridity as the inevitable future of humanity and some contemporary texts suggest that this hybridity is the mechanism through which humanity will progress toward racial equity and substantive democratic principles. These new narratives are explicated, analyzed, and critiqued with regard to their function in contemporary United States culture and politics.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n