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Second Skin, white masks: Postcolonial reparation in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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Abstract

Melanie Klein’s theory of psychic reparation has been rightly criticized for colonial assumptions about which objects and populations are deemed worthy of political reparation. Yet this article cautions against dismissing Klein’s account of reparation altogether, and advocates reading Klein against herself. Illustrating this argument, I offer an against-the-grain reading of the psychic dynamics of postcolonial conflict in another text widely criticized for its colonial assumptions: Star Trek. I focus on the anticolonial revolutionary character Kira Nerys in spinoff Deep Space Nine, who never forgives her colonial oppressors, but does integrate love and hate in the context of radical anticolonial coalition-building.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University College, University of Toronto, 15 King’s College Circle, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H7, Canada

    David K. Seitz

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  1. David K. Seitz
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Correspondence to David K. Seitz.

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Seitz, D.K. Second Skin, white masks: Postcolonial reparation in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Psychoanal Cult Soc 22, 401–419 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-017-0043-2

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