Octavia Butler's Kindred: Literary Analysis

This presentation will explore Violence, Trauma, and Knowledge as interlocking concepts in Octavia Butler’s Kindred. While it may be obvious that violence and trauma are integral parts of both the slave narrative and neo-slave narrative traditions, the part these concepts play in the slaves’, or their decedents, acquisition of knowledge may be more subversive. In Kindred, the protagonist, Dana, is somehow teleported to save her white male ancestor in slave era Maryland. During these times, she has to live as a slave in order to blend in, and she experiences the same violence and trauma as a slave during this era would. Throughout the novel, she is confront with the chose to let her white ancestor die, or to kill him or his father when they