FINDING MOMENTS OF RUPTURE IN MONAE'S METROPOLIS: A HYBRID TRADITION

Abstract

My thesis asserts that there is a definite stylistic and thematic connection between author Octavia Butler and the performer Janelle Monáe. The association between them is founded on a black feminist tradition that uses hybrid characters and scenarios to counter typically white male heteronormative narratives. Studying how both artists construct feminist hybrid characters is important for two reasons: first, it adds to small but burgeoning area of study surrounding the figure of Janelle Monáe. Second, it calls attention to a mostly unnoticed literary legacy that unites Butler and Monáe. Through the use of hybridized characters, this thesis finds that both artists disrupt and reorient ordinary cultural arrangements of race, gender, class, and sexuality by warping the meaning of ritualized behavior.