English 369:  Contemporary Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction

Alfred Bendixen, Ph.D.

 

An exploration of contemporary speculative fiction, with particular attention to the ways specific texts in the past fifty years have transformed science fiction into a richly imaginative literary form that challenges basic assumptions about the possibilities and limitations of human life.  Our analysis of texts will focus on both the literary achievement and philosophical underpinnings of recent depictions of imagined futures, travels in time and space, and contacts with aliens, robots, and androids.

Assignments, Expectations, and Grading: Regular attendance and timely completion of all reading assignments are expected.  Final Grades will be based on the following:

Midterm Exam 20%

Final Exam 25%

Class/Precept Participation 15%

Paper(s) 40%

 

The exams will emphasize the material covered in class and the readings. The papers will provide you with opportunities to explore science fiction in a variety of ways, including traditional analyses of literary texts, research papers, creative work, and reports of your own discoveries in the genre. Students should emerge from this course with a greater awareness of and appreciation for the achievements of speculative fiction and a heightened ability to read and interpret multiple kinds of fiction.

Electronic devices may not be used during lecture – you may use a laptop to take notes but not to access the internet, email, Facebook, or a search engine.

Required Texts:

Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, eds. Sisters of the Revolution (2015)

Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968)

Ursula K. LeGuin, Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)

Octavia Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories (2005)

Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006)

Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (1985)

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992)

Robert Sawyer, Calculating God (2000)

Nalo Hopkinson, Brown Girl in the Ring (1998)

Max Brooks, World War Z (2006)

 

 

Sept. 14   Introduction:

Sign up for precept sections which begin Sep 21.

Sept.  19   Octavia Butler, Blood Child (2005):  read the following stories and Butler’s background explanation of how she came to write them: “Bloodchild” and “Speech Sounds”

          21   Butler, “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” and “The Book of Martha”

Sept. 26   Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968)

         28   Optional:  Watch the film version, Blade Runner

Oct.    3   Sisters of the Revolution (2015):  James Tiptree, Jr., “The Screwfly Solution,” 83-101; Pat Murphy, Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates,” 185-194; Eleanor Arnason, “The Grammarian’s Five Daughters,” 41-49;

           5   Sisters of the Revolution (2015): Joanna Russ, “When It Changed,” 195-202; Pamela Sargent, “Fears” 299-307; Catherynne M. Valente, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time,” 315-326;

Oct.   10   Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006)

          12   

First possible due date for short paper.

Oct.   17   Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (1985)

          19

Oct.   24 

          26  Midterm exam

Fall Recess

Nov.  7   Ursula K. LeGuin, Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)

          9 

Second Possible Due Date for short Paper

Nov  14   Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992)

         16  

Nov.  21  

Thanksgiving

Nov.  28   Robert Sawyer, Calculating God, (2000)

          30 

Third due date for short paper.

Dec.    5    Nalo Hopkinson, Brown Girl in the Ring (1998)

           7 

Dec.  12   Max Brooks, World War Z   (2006)

         14 

Fourth Possible Due Date for short Paper

 

Weekly assignments for precept section:   At the end of each lecture, I ask you to write a sentence or two describing the most important thing or things you learned in that lecture and to provide at least one question about either the lecture or reading.  You will hand these in to your preceptors each week, who will use this information to guide discussion and keep me informed about the progress of the course.

 

Paper Assignments: 

40 percent of your final grade will be based on your writing assignments.  Each Paper is worth 20% and you must write at least two papers on at least two of the topics below. You may write as many as four papers if you wish and the two best grades will count, but you must hand them in on separate due dates and you may not hand in more than one paper on each due date.

Each paper should be about 4-6 typed double spaced pages (1,000-1,500 words).  It is all right if one of the papers is a bit longer than that – provided that the paper does not suffer from wordiness. For instance, many of the short stories handed in will go beyond five pages.  It is not all right to hand in a paper that is substantially shorter than 1,000 words.

Paper Topic 1:   Provide a literary analysis of some aspect of one of the texts we have read in class.  You might choose to focus on the development of the protagonist or narrator or the use of setting or figurative language or on an exploration of some central theme or technique.  You must have a focus and develop a clear thesis with a close analysis of the details of the text.

Paper Topic 2:   You may write a research paper in which you explore the scientific underpinnings of one of the texts we read.  The research should lead you into a greater understanding of how an author transforms scientific knowledge into a literary text.

Paper Topic 3:  Compare and Contrast two of the texts we have read this semester.  You must have a focus and develop a central argument by providing a close analysis of the details of these texts.

Paper Topic 4:  Write your own short science fiction story and then provide a brief analysis (about 250-400 words) explaining how your story reflects ideas and themes developed in this course.  Your grade will be based on both the story and your analysis of your story. 

Paper Topic 5:  Write a paper arguing that I should add a specific work of contemporary speculative fiction to the syllabus of this course.  Your goal is to persuade me that a specific text and author merit serious attention and will add something important to this course.

 

Alfred Bendixen, Princeton University