An Indigenous Rhetorical Praxis of Futurity: Indigeneity, Spatiality, and Relationality in Speculative Fiction Literature

This dissertation develops an Indigenous rhetorical praxis of futurity, whichserves as an anticolonial methodology to activate indigeneity as a condition of possibility within communication studies. This approach seeks to apprehend and expose the persistence of colonialism and imperialism, particularly as these structures continue to shape and impact Indigenous lands and lives. It is promiscuous in practice, building from Indigenous political and cultural domains while simultaneously traversing the networks of colonialist ideologies to rearticulate rhetorical theoretical and methodological practices that are infused in anticolonial consciousness. To illuminate this praxis, I analyze three Indigenous speculative fiction novels authored by Indigenous people: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas), The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (Georgian Bay Métis), and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet). I concentrate on two primary aspects within the novels studied, including the authors’ articulations of spatial and affective relations as they inform Indigenous futurity. My focus on spatiality interrogates how the authors redefine colonial spaces and their impacts on bodies, identities, communities, and kinship formations. The analysis of affect explores how Indigenous desires, intimacies, and sensual embodiments are employed to dismantle liberalism, democracy, and discourses of rights and recognition. These examinations uncover the productions of indigeneity, colonialism, and sovereignty to enhance an understanding of the modes of dispossession through which subjectivities are constructed and deconstructed. Overall, this dissertation carves a space for Indigenous futures in communication studies and makes contributions to critical rhetorical studies, queer intercultural communication research, and the emerging subfield of Indigenous communication studies.