Reading & Composition

Reading speculative fiction has long been stereotyped as a fundamentally unserious, childish, or even irresponsible pursuit: an effort to escape existing realities instead of engaging critically with them. Yet in the age of The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale, it seems obvious that stories of distant futures, alternative histories, and faraway planets do not always appeal to readers on the basis of pure escapism: they offer
opportunities to reconsider current political conditions. But what kind of political imagination do such texts cultivate? Is speculative fiction an inherently pessimistic genre, whose vision of the future is dominated by manifestations of human brutality, as a number of recent examples seem to suggest? Or can it offer a compelling image of more just and collaborative forms of social life? And in a broader sense, does speculative fiction simply reflect our present anxieties and desires, or can it actually reshape our political outlook?

This course will explore the question of how, exactly, speculative fiction becomes political. As we consider works from a variety of national traditions and historical periods, we will examine the techniques each author uses to prompt readers to think differently about their own present circumstances. Since this is an R&C course, its major goals are to improve students’ skills in close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing, and to explore the relationships between the three skills. In addition to discussing the texts in class, students will write responses to them in a variety of forms, from literary analysis essays to creative projects.
Texts may include:
Novels:
Samuel R. Delany, Babel-17
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
Graphic novel:
Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, Snowpiercer Vol. 1: The Escape
Short stories:
Jorge Luis Borges, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”
Julio Cortázar, “The Night Face Up”

Films:

Bong Joon-ho, Snowpiercer
Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men
Fritz Lang, Metropolis
Ridley Scott, Blade Runner