The song of power: A fugue of dystopia and racial regeneration

Abstract

In this paper I take the form of the fugue in music to query a contemporary dynamic. It is one where hopefulness entwines with worrisome, oppressive realities that pervade biosocial trends concerning race. Genetic ancestry testing, forensic uses of DNA, and President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative are all examined as aspects of this cultural moment where biosociality must be engaged for its potential contradictory outcomes, which I argue are regenerative in form, yet often dystopian.