Kindred

Kindred combines aspects of fantasy, science fiction, and neo-slave narrative, or a modern fictional work set during the era of slavery. In the novel, Butler employs time travel —a convention most often associated with science fiction —in order to examine racist violence in the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War,  but she does not try to explain how or why Dana travels to the past. Instead, she allows the nature of Dana’s time-skipping to remain a mystery. A scene in which Dana returns from her first trip to the past establishes the novel’s unique combination of elements from these different genres: 

I was kneeling in the living room of my own house again several feet from where I had fallen minutes before. I was back at home—wet and muddy, but intact. Across the room, Kevin stood frozen, staring at the spot where I had been. How long had he been there? “Kevin?” 

He spun around to face me. “What the hell … how did you get over there?” he whispered. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Dana, you …” 

He came over to me, touched me tentatively as though he wasn’t sure I was real. Then he grabbed me by the shoulders and held me tightly. 

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