Bombs, Bodies, and Ghosts: Navigating Rhetorical Legacies of Nuclear Technology in Recent Caribbean Science Fiction

Abstract

This article examines the rhetorical power of nuclear weapons, and how recent Caribbean science fiction has challenged popular nuclear archives. Dominican author Rey Emmanuel Andújar’s story “Gameon” (2014), speculates on the environmental, human, and geopolitical effects of nuclear war. Next, Cuban author Yasmín Silvia Portales’s story “Las extrañas decisiones de Vladimir Denísovich Jiménez” (2016), asks if there is a place for queerness within a power structure based on nuclear supremacy. Finally, Cuban author Erick Mota’s novella Trabajo Extra (2014) uses radioactive materials to discuss labor exploitation and alternative modes of development. These texts challenge colonizing nuclear rhetoric by creating spaces for proper mourning and remembrance.

Keywords

• Caribbean Science Fiction
• Nuclear Technology
• Dominican Republic
• Cuba
• Techno-colonialism