This dissertation approaches the literary corpus of W.E.B. Du Bois with specific attention paid to understudied speculative texts, what could be classified as Science Fiction presently, and the theoretical elements of Du Bois's scholarly work which inform them. I argue that both that these works---"A Vacation Unique," The Star of Ethiopia and "A.D. 2150"---belong in a critical canon of Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction, but that these texts are also vitally linked to Du Bois's political... Show moreThis dissertation approaches the literary corpus of W.E.B. Du Bois with specific attention paid to understudied speculative texts, what could be classified as Science Fiction presently, and the theoretical elements of Du Bois's scholarly work which inform them. I argue that both that these works---"A Vacation Unique," The Star of Ethiopia and "A.D. 2150"---belong in a critical canon of Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction, but that these texts are also vitally linked to Du Bois's political and sociological philosophy. Du Bois's groundbreaking sociological work and theories of human societies as they are organized by concepts of Race, and the complex relationships between individuals and larger groups---including and especially "Sociology Hesitant" and "The Spirit of Modern Europe"---provide the technological and scientific basis for his literary consideration of the possible. Du Bois's literary imagination is oriented toward a future which is not necessarily Utopian but which is sensitive to the social construction and consequences of Race, and the pathway to a more equitable and just society. The scientific imagination of Du Bois's literary fiction presents his theoretical vision of Race, Identity, and collective enterprise as it spans centuries and travels long distances among the global descendants of the African Diaspora, and this theoretical, historical view shapes the structure of my analysis. First, in Chapter 1, I seek to establish Du Boisian philosophy as it wields a variety of scientific and sociological concepts to describe and imagine the possibilities of Race and the future in his theoretical works, which Du Bois explicitly connects to the experimental space of imaginative fiction. Chapter 2 focuses on Du Bois's spectacular historical pageant, The Star of Ethiopia, which establishes the foundational past of African Civilizations, and the intellectual technology of Ancient History as a tool for asserting national identity in the present and looking towards the future. Chapter 3 examines Du Bois's fragmentary short story, "A Vacation Unique," as it explores the slippery sociopolitical category of race through the abstract geometrical analogy of the Fourth Dimension. Finally in conclusion, I look to an explicitly futuristic short story, "A.D. 2150," which projects some of Du Bois's sociological theories into the future, but which is remarkably hesitant to perform sincere forecasting, and demonstrates some of the limits of futurology for Du Bosian thought. Locating these texts in Du Bois's corpus and critically linking them to his political and sociological work, provides models of understanding their place among the canon of African American literature and Science Fiction. The theoretical possibilities of Du Boisian literary fiction provides not only a framework for reading these particular texts, but demonstrates the remarkable intersection of African American Science Fiction and Du Boisian Critical Race Theory more broadly. Show less
