This paper explores depictions of queerness and resistance in Samuel Delany’s Tales of Nevèrÿon . The paper particularly focuses on the characters of Gorgik the Liberator, an antislavery crusader and BDSM enthusiast, who is never actually seen liberating a slave in the book and Raven, a woman warrior from a matriarchal land. While Gorgik wears a slave’s collar as a symbol of both his commitment to liberation and his queer sexuality, Raven’s twin-bladed sword represents her commitment to violent resistance of misogyny and, in a reversal of the usual phallic symbolism of the sword, symbolizes a vagina.
In this chapter, Joshua Yu Burnett demonstrates that Okorafor simultaneously critiques speculative fiction for its one-dimensional depictions of race and works within the confines of the genre to advocate for fluid, multifaceted intersectionality. While popular young adult dystopian/science fiction novels frequently depict white girls and young women overcoming societal expectations and oppressions, such novels often ignore the role whiteness plays in the protagonist’s ability to resist. This chapter argues that Okorafor takes an intersectional approach, recognizing the role that racialization plays and the toll it takes, as well as locates racialized otherness as a source of resistance and the overcoming of constricting social norms. Okorafor’s work is valuable for precisely this reason: she not only depicts Black and African girls in speculative settings, but she transforms their double marginalization into resistance and empowerment.
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