ABSTRACT
This chapter explores non-reproductive forms of kinship in SF alongside Halberstam’s work on “the queer art of failure”, in particular his investigation into the kinds of adaptive affiliative processes that can arise through the refusal of heteronormative models of growth and development. Halberstam’s critique of an “authenticating notion of longevity” that defends the validity of the nuclear family through an emphasis on long-term bonds and blood ties above other kinds of intimacies elucidates the anti-racist and gender inclusive potential of collective and non-reproductive kinship structures in my chosen works of SF. Through a reading of Nicoletta Vallorani’s Il Cuore Finto di DR and Sulla Sabbia di Sur within the framework of the key concepts of Halberstam’s “queer art of failure”, I explore how an analysis of the agentic capabilities of science fictional kinship groups that thrive in hostile environments can elucidate Butler’s conception of collective political mobilisations motivated by mutual yet uneven experiences of human vulnerability, and the fluid, non-reproductive forms of kinship suggested by Gilroy, based in “will, inclination, mood, and affinity” and unfettered by historical and familial ties. Literally as well as metaphorically synthetic and disorganic, the kinship groups suggested by these works of SF simultaneously de-essentialise the family and remove “race” as the biologising frame of social intimacy.
