Commenting on the creative spark that set the engines of the Firefly-class ship Serenity humming, Joss Whedon said, “I wanted to play with that classic notion of the frontier: not the people who made history, but the people history stepped on—the people for whom every act is the creation of civilization” (reprinted in Nussbaum, 67). The real historical archetypes and narratives which lie underneath Whedon’s universe are not too difficult to root out, from details such as Kaylee’s ridiculous Southern Belle dress to major plot points, such as the Unification War’s “Independents” or “Browncoats” and their enemies, whom Mal terms “Feds.”
While Whedon manages to keep his Unification War separate from the issue of slavery and the racism which haunts the Wild West genre and the real history of the American West, his universe perpetuates yet another manifestation of “history stepping on people.” In my paper, I will be exploring how the absence of the Chinese face in Whedon’s Sino-Anglo universe participates in a dark truth of America’s western history and literature: the racism and exploitation surrounding the Chinese immigrants who created the Transcontinental Railroad. As in Whedon’s universe, the Chinese immigrants in the Wild West were used—but given no faces in the society they helped to forge.
The paradox posed by the Firefly universe, which blends Chinese and American culture only to forget the Chinese themselves, will serve to highlight the advances made by our own society to rectify the tragic reality of racism, as well as point out some of the limitations which have hampered our efforts to recognize every face.
About the presenterMary Elizabeth Cuff
Mary Cuff is a PhD candidate in 19th and 20th century American literature at the Catholic University of America. Her main research interests involve the problematic role of tradition in America, literature and history, and the Civil War in literature.