Human Contradictions in Octavia Butler's Work continues the critical discussions of Butler's work by offering a variety of theoretical perspectives and approaches to Butler's text. This collection contains original essays that engage Butler's series (Seed to Harvest, Xenogenesis, Parables), her stand-alone novels (Kindred and Fledgling), and her short stories. The essays explore new facets of Butler's work and its relevance to philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, cultural studies, ethnic studies, women's studies, religious studies, American studies, and U.S. history. The volume establishes new ways of reading this seminal figure in African American literature, science fiction, feminism, and popular culture.

Martin Japtok is Associate Professor of English at Palomar College, USA, and has authored Growing Up Ethnic: Nationalism and the Bildungsroman in African American and Jewish American Fiction (2005), edited Postcolonial Perspectives on Women Writers from Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S. (2003), and co-edited Authentic Blackness/"Real" Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture (2011).Jerry Rafiki Jenkins is Professor of English at Palomar College, USA, and is the author of The Paradox of Blackness in African American Vampire Fiction (2019) and co-editor of Authentic Blackness/"Real" Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture (2011).