Readings are due on the dates indicated. BB indicates a reading can be found on our Blackboard site on the Course Readings page.

Download a PDF of the syllabus here.

What is Sci-Fi?

Thursday, August 20

  • Introduction to the course

Tuesday, August 25

  • Read Blog Post Prompt 1
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (1973) (BB)
  • Darko Suvin, Ch. 4 “SF and the Novum” from Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), pgs 63-70, 80-84 (BB)
  • Fredric Jameson, Ch. 13 “The Future as Disruption” from Archaeologies of the Future (2005), pgs 231-233 (BB)
  • Walidah Imarisha, “Rewriting the Future”truthout, March 7, 2015

Thursday, August 27

Empire

Tuesday, September 1

  • Last day to withdraw without a W
  • H. G. Wells, The __War of the Worlds (1897), Book I, Ch. 1-12
  • Robert Markley, Ch. 3 “‘Different Beyond the Most Bizarre Imaginings of Nightmare’: Mars in Science Fiction, 1880–1913,” from Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination (2005), pgs 115-127 (BB)

Thursday, September 3

  • Blog Post 2 due
  • H. G. Wells, The __War of the Worlds (1897), Book I, Ch. 13-17

Friday, September 4

  • Lit Review subgenre selection and preliminary bibliography due by 10 pm (to course site)

Tuesday, September 8

  • H. G. Wells, The __War of the Worlds (1897), Book II, Ch. 1-10
  • Jeffrey Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” from _Monster Theory: Reading Culture (_1996) (BB)
  • Recommended: Literature Review Sample (BB)

Thursday, September 10

  • Ursula K. Le Guin, “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” (1971) (BB)

Friday, September 11

  • Literature Review due by 10 pm

Colony

Tuesday, September 15

  • Octavia Butler, Dawn (1987), Part I: Womb
  • Selection from Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Myths (1967), “Adam’s Helpmeets”

Thursday, September 17

  • Blog Post 3 due
  • Octavia Butler, Dawn (1987), Part II: Family
  • Achille Mbembe, “Provisional Notes on the Postcolony,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (1992), pgs 3-5 (BB)

Tuesday, September 22

  • Octavia Butler, Dawn (1987), Part III: Nursery
  • Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Selection from Ch. 10: “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life”
  • Judith Butler, Gender Trouble__: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), Selections from Ch. 1, pgs 6-9, 31-34

Thursday, September 24

  • Blog Post 4 due
  • Octavia Butler, Dawn (1987), Part IV: The Training Floor

Tuesday, September 29

  • Ted Chiang, “Story of Your Life” (1998) (BB)

Future Disaster

Thursday, October 1

Tuesday, October 6

  • Ursula Heise, “Toxins, Drugs, and Global Systems: Risk and Narrative in the Contemporary Novel,” American Literature (2002), pgs 757-764 (BB)
  • Ulrich Beck, Ch. 2 “The Politics of Knowledge in the Risk Society,” from Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1992) (BB)
  • Junot Díaz, “Monstro” (2012)

Thursday, October 8

Friday, October 9

  • Unessay précis due by 10 pm

Tuesday, October 13: NO CLASS – Fall Break

Thursday, October 15

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 1-6
  • Margaret Atwood, “The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake in Context,” PMLA (2004) (BB)

Tuesday, October 20

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 7-9

Thursday, October 22

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 10-11

Tuesday, October 27

  • Last day to withdraw (with a W)
  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 12-15

Thursday, October 29

  • Workshop

Friday, October 30

  • Unessay due by 5 pm

Return to Mars

Tuesday, November 3

  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), Parts I-2
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, “Introduction,” from Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias (1994)

Thursday, November 5: NO CLASS – Instructor out of town

Tuesday, November 10

  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), Part 3
  • Peter C. Van Wyck, “Introduction,” from Signs of Danger: Waste, Trauma, and Nuclear Threat (2004) (BB)

Thursday, November 12: NO CLASS – Instructor out of town

Tuesday, November 17

  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), Part 4 – first 1/3 of Part 5 (up to pg 284)

Thursday, November 19

  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), complete Part 5

Tuesday, November 24

  • Final Project Proposals due
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), Part 6

Thursday, November 26: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving Break

Tuesday, December 1

  • Second 5 blog posts due
  • Bring laptops to class: We will fill out course evaluations at the beginning of class
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), Parts 7-8

Thursday, December 3

  • Workshop

Finals Week

Friday, December 11

  • Final Project due by 2:00 pm