Reading & Composition

In this course we will develop writing and argumentative skills through exploring imaginative and theoretical texts that offer us models of alternatives worlds whose social structures attempt to solve some of the perennial problems of modern living. We will think through questions concerning the consequences of industrialization, gender relations, and the conditions needed to bring about a just society, among others. We will watch several contemporary films, and read a variety of texts from different historical periods and cultural traditions, focusing specifically on utopian fiction and sci-fi. We will consider some of the following questions: under what social conditions an “alternative world” becomes desirable? What do we mean by “world” and what might be its opposites? What role do literary form and genre have in constructing an alternative world? What kind of attitude do we adopt vis à vis such texts whose implicit or explicit aim is to be “more” than an imaginary experiment?

Books Required

Thomas More, Utopia

Isaac Asimov, Prelude to Foundation

Course Reader

Films

Wachowski Brothers, Matrix I

Jean-Luc Godard, Alphaville