Popular Culture In Popular Literature

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Popular culture consists of the cultural patterns and expressions which are recognized and reflected by the society. Speculative fiction, which includes genres of speculation like science fiction, fantasy, horror, futuristic utopia/dystopia, alternative history and cyberpunk, is a staple of popular interest and consumption. In the wake of advanced breakthroughs in scientific innovations, the speculative explores the immense possibilities that technology has brought into our lives. As an integral part of popular culture, the speculative reflects on the values of society and draws from its common beliefs, shared values, fears and superstitions. Moreover, it is informed by the postmodern outlook which subverts the distinction between high and …show more content…

She grew up in Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad before moving to and settling in Toronto, Canada, in 1977. The evocative, often troubling, novels of Hopkinson explore far-reaching issues of race, gender relations, power hierarchies and the recovery of a genuine female voice free of the limitations imposed by the patriarchal society. Her narratives blend the elements of science fiction and fantasy with motifs of tricksterism and storytelling from Afro-Caribbean folklore. This hybrid nature of her works largely transforms them into vehicles of addressing cultural issues with depth, passionate intensity and complexity. She taps into the potential of speculative fiction to be “perverse and subversive and oppositional and revolutionary” which makes it “a wonderful literature for radical and marginalised communities” (Burwell 41). Hopkinson, as a part of the Afrofuturist mode of discourse, portrays digital futures hybridized with the cultural landscape of African diaspora. The peculiar situations based on technological advancement depicted in her narratives, craft unorthodox versions of societies where there is an intermingling of histories, languages, and

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