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发布时间：2020-12-16 热度：

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Analysis of Body and Power in Octavia Butler’s Dawn
In 1976, M. Foucault proposes the concept of biopolitics to describe the connections between bodies and powers. According to Foucault, biopolitics “deals with the population, with the population as a political problem, as a problem that is at once scientific and political, as a biological problem and as power’s problem” (245). Here the interpretation of Foucault reveals that the biopolitics actually concerns the interactions between life and power as two interdependent elements. Foucault’s illustration of biopolitics focuses on the concept of power over life. In the mind of Foucault, the power over life already has been in use since in the 17th century, initially in the form of the disciplinary power and then in the biopolitics. Unlike the disciplinary power that comes into use when the individuals start to internalize the social norms at the individual level, the biopolitics regards the population as the subject and resources at the population level. Especially with the development of capitalism, biopolitics concerns controlling and modifying life. In addition to distinguishing the biopolitics from the disciplinary power, Foucault also discusses the connections between biopolitics and sexuality as well as race. He especially attaches importance to sexuality as one that allows power-knowledge to influence both the individuals and the social population and thus create both the disciplinary effect and the regulatory effects (Foucault 252).This paper will examine Bulter’s Dawn from the perspective of biopolitics. Overall, in Dawn, in accordance with Foucault’s biopolitics, Bulter not only objectifies humans as a race waiting to be saved but also introduces another alien race called Oankali and discusses the possibility of whether humans’ issues could be solved through the cooperation with Oankali and sets Lilith as a female character as the leader of the whole novel, which allows Bulter to discuss different alternatives to humans’ future.

To analyze the presence of biopolitics in Dawn, it is necessary to give an overview of the basic plot of Dawn. As the first book of Octavia Bulter’s Lilith’s Blood series that was initially published in 1987, Dawn narrates the experience of Lilith Iyapo who is awakened 250 years after a destructive nuclear war that almost led to the extinction of humans. Despite her disliking of the Oankali, an alien race that has three sex types and has the physical appearnce of being covered by tentacles, she reaches an agreement with them that the Oankali will changed the ruined earth into a liveable one, awaken other humans, and help them survive under the new environment. In return, the humans will interbreed with the Oankali so as to create a hybrid of humans and the Oankali. The awakened humans rebel against the agreement and kill Lilith’s mate but are sent back to the earth as they fail, inclusive of Lilith who gets pregnant under the manipulation of the the Oankali. After an overview of the plot of Dawn, it is easy to observe that one apparent feature of Dawn is the connections between body and powers at the center of the whole novel
One core content of biopolitics as is reflected in Dawn is controlling and modifying of humans’ body as subjects, which actually lays the foundation for the separation between mind and body that used to be perceived as one. In The Will To Knowledge, Foucault describes the biopower as a power that plays a positive role in shaping humans’ future by making efforts to “administer,” “optimize,” and multiply” humans’ body (23). Here based on the statement of Foucault, under biopolitics, humans’ bodies have become the subject of social control and regulation just like money, natural resources, and the infrastructure. This point can be easily observed in the identity of the Oankali as genetic collectors and controllers. Instead of experiencing the traditional pregnancy and childbirth process, as these aliens manipulate the genetic materials to perpetuate their kinds, the bodies then become the most important resources to ensure their survival. Here it is quite apparent that the control of bodies is at the population level that concerns the survival of the Oankali. In fact, in this novel, there are numerous details regarding the control of human bodies as objects. For instance, since the beginning, the humans’ bodies have been under the control and regulation of the Oankali (Tracey). The objectification of the female’s body is best reflected in the conversation between Paul Titus and Lilith. At the same time of admitting that he has at least 70 children, Paul says, “he [doesn’t] know who they mixed the stuff with” (Butler 99). Based on the statement of Paul, it is quite apparent that for the Oankali, giving birth is merely a biological process. But this process is not limited to the individual level. Instead, it serves as the first attempt between humans and Oankali as two different races. It has lost the social meanings in humans’ society that perceives childbirth as an extension of the romantic love and a significant family affair.