burlingame-goff

Spock, Data, Worf, B’Elanna Torres, Seven of Nine, Odo, Michael Burnham, Soji. Many of Star Trek’s most beloved characters are children of two worlds, the products of competing biologies, materials, and cultures. Their popularity is unsurprising: authors mine conflicted identities for dramatic effect, and viewers see their own struggles reflected in the challenges of individuals who never seem to quite fit in.

This book demonstrates that the tradition is not new. Spock and his fellow hybrids have their roots in anti-slavery literature. Abolitionist authors introduced protagonists who were both Black and White, yet not fully accepted as either. Divided at their core, the attempts of these noble yet tortured individuals to bridge their two races inevitably ended in tragedy. Gene Roddenberry and his successors thrust the character type into the future, using it to explore the evolving racial attitudes of their times. Star Trek’s tragic hybrids have asked audiences to see beyond color, to embrace multiculturism, to accept mixed-race identity, and, finally, to acknowledge the consequences of systemic oppression.

Carolyn Burlingame-Goff has been a member of the University of Heidelberg’s English Department for over 30 years. Her teaching and research concentrate on language and literature as well as American Cultural Studies.