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This book offers an in-depth analysis of Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer, an Afrofuturist project that appeared simultaneously as a concept album and a visual album or "emotion picture" in spring 2018. In the previous decade, Janelle Monáe has developed into a global media personality who effortlessly unites speculative world-building with social and political activism. Across the intersecting album and film that together make up Dirty Computer, Monáe brings together the science-fictional themes that informed her previous work, resulting in a powerfully focused artistic and political statement. While the music on the album can be enjoyed as an accessible collection of pop tracks, the accompanying film, music videos, and media paratexts add layers of meaning that combine speculative world-building with anti-racist activism. This unique convergence of energies, ideas, and media platforms has made Dirty Computer a new classic of Afrofuturist science fiction.
List of contents
1. "Young, Black, Wild and Free": Janelle Monáe's Afrofuturist Project.- 2. "Black Girl Magic, Y'All Can't Stand It": Black Feminism.- 3. "Everything is Sex, Except Sex, Which is Power": Queerness and Sexual Identity.- 4. "This is Not My America": The Dialectics of Racial Capitalism.- 5. "Sign Your Name on the Dotted Line": SF Activism.
About the author
Dan Hassler-Forest works as Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Utrecht University. He has published books and articles on superhero movies, comics, transmedia storytelling, critical theory, and Star Wars. His recent work has been focused on race and global media, with a special focus in his last two books on the creative work of performing artist Janelle Monáe.
