Seizing the Alterity of Futures

Abstract

Abstract This article contextualizes growing interest in futurity and minoritarian futures as connected to movements in speculative fiction, particularly Afrofuturism and Indigenous futurism, and the ways in which this genre reimagines both history and futures. These developments are read through two groundbreaking anthologies—Dark Matter, a collection of speculative fiction from the African diaspora, and Walking the Clouds, a collection of Indigenous science fiction—and the social conditions of their publication. Using the work of Walter Benjamin and his writing against the notion of progress in history, the article posits the shared grounds for a philosophy of history that disrupts the singular future of speculation-driven capitalism with alternative forms of speculative imagination.