ENGL 53.22 Science Fiction Studies

This class will examine the development of science fiction as literature, considering the distinctive characteristics of the genre. We will read critical perspectives on scifi that connect it to both modern and postmodern themes; we will think through the politics of scifi, focusing especially on its utopian and dystopian elements; we will articulate the many subgenres of scifi; we will investigate the unusually strong influence of the community of readers on the published texts in scifi. But primarily we will read representative examples, novels, stories, and even some films, from well-known classics to little-known and marginal texts. Authors may include John Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Ursula Le Guin, Arthur Clark, Philip Dick, Octavia Butler, William Gibson, James Tiptree, Jr., Stanislaw Lem, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Samuel Delaney, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Greg Egan, Ted Chiang, and still others. The class will have an opportunity to shape the syllabus somewhat according to the preferences of enrolled students.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Course Group III