American Fantastic challenges readers to recognize an organizing myth in modern American culture's perception of its imperialist past: 'the myth of redemptive violence.' Derek J. Thiess persuasively argues that this myth serves to obscure the deep thread of Christian supremacy that underwrites America's colonial and imperial impulse, from the early colonial period to westward expansion to the contemporary period. This American imaginary that enmeshes religion with violence is constructed in multiple contentious and productive contact zones: between genres, between cultures, and between past and present. Thiess's interdisciplinary study examines America's past and present imperial projects, from the periphery of the Hawaiian Islands to the mainland core, as they proliferate in popular story forms. By interrogating American myths, legends, and fantastic narratives across an impressive array of genres, including folk narratives, science fiction, movies, and more, Thiess exposes how the 'myth of redemptive violence' manifests in contemporary constructions of America's fantastic imaginaries.
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter : Violence and Redemption at the Edge: SF Sport and Mo' olelo Nalu Chapter 2: Closer to Center: The Franklin Expedition, Myth, and the Embodied Horrors of History Chapter 3: Myth and Violence on the Homefront: The John Henry Legend Chapter 4: " Only the Devil and I" : Pirates, Missionaries, and the Blackbeard Legend Chapter 5: Bootstaps and Pederasts: Child Protectionism and the Horatio Alger Myth Chapter : From Defecation to Deification: Religion and Empire in Torture Porn Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
"Offers an original contribution to American, folklore, and fantastic studies. The selections analyzed are eclectic but the argument that surfing, pirates, John Henry, and rags-to-riches stories actually do have something in common is convincing. All are expressions of the American colonialist impulse and all involve transformative (perhaps ritualized) violence. An important, provocative study." - Brian Attebery, author of Fantasy: How It Works "Thiess convincingly interrogates mythologized violence in speculative literatures and media and how this mythmaking relates to Christianity and capitalism while continually generating a sense of entitlement, an American exceptionalism or Christian supremacy, that allows an ongoing exploitation devoid of guilt." - Isiah Lavender III, author of Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement
