POL 440 Fall 2003

Course Topics and Assignments

 

Homepage Course Objectives Utopian SF Literature Course Requirements Recommended Readings  Internet Resources

Week 1: Introduction: The Nature of Politics and the Origins of Science Fiction Literature - Aug. 29 Required Readings: Stephen Bonnycastle. 1991. In Search of Authority, Preface, Chapts. 1-3 Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree, Intro and Chapter I, III, V   Week 2: Literary Criticism and Science Fiction - September 4 Required Readings: Michael Swanwick. 2000. Wild Minds, in Michael Swanwick, Tales of Old Earth. Berkeley, North Atlantic Books; Pp. 126-136 James Gunn. "The World View of Science Fiction." online at http://www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/sfview.htm Zymayatin, We Film: 1984 Week 3: Politics and the Totalitarian Science Fiction Novel- September11 Required Reading: Zymyatin, We Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree, Chapter VIII, IX   Week 4: Science Fiction: A window into the Future - September 18 Required Reading: Begin Reading Snowcrash Barbara Lisele Zavala. Eighties Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk, a new form of science fiction written by a group of five writers. An essay about the early years. At http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/eighties_cyberpunk.html Tom Maddox. Cyberpunk in the '80s and '90s After the Deluge: Cyberpunk Science Fiction in the '80 and '90s, at http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_in_80-90.html Bruce Sterling. Cyberpunk in the Nineties. At http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_in_the_nineties.html Lawrence Person. Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto. At http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/notes_toward_a_postcyberpunk_manifesto.html Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree; Chapter X, XI Week 5 and 6: Cyberpunk - September 25, October 2 Required Reading: Neil Stephenson, Snow Crash Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree, Chapt XVI Film: The Matrix   Week 7 and 8: The Utopian Science Fiction Novel - October 9, 16 Required Reading: Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time John Kessel, 1987. "Humanist Manifesto," Science Fiction Eye, Vol. 1, no. 1 Michael Swanwick.1997. "Growing up in the Future." New York Review of Science Fiction, Issue #101. Online at: http://www.michaelswanwick.com/nonfic/future.html Michael Swanwick. 1986. "A Users Guide to the Postmoderns," Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction (August). Dan Simmons. 1999. "Science Fiction: A Window on the Future, " Negative Spaces Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree, Chapter XIV, XV   Week 9: New Wave Science Fiction Era (Dystopian Novel)- October 23 Required Reading: Philip K. Dick, Dr. Bloodmoney Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree, Chapter XII, XIII   Week 10 and 11: Slipstream - October 30, November 6 Required Readings: Patricia Anthony, Flanders Bruce Sterling. 1989. "Slipstream," Science Fiction Eye, Vol. 1, no. 5 Brian Stableford. 1996. "The Third Generation of Genre SF," Science-Fiction Studies, No. 70, (November) Vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 321-330 Video: Jacobs Ladder Week 12: Far Future Utopian Science Fiction - November 13 Required Reading: Brian Stableford, Inherit the Earth Week 13 and 14: First Contact Novel - November 20 Required Reading: Mary Doria Russell, Sparrow 1997. "Who Killed Science Fiction?: A Spectrum of Responses," New York Review of Science Fiction, (April), No. 104, Vol. 9, no. 8. Week 15 & 16 : No Class November 27, December 4 Required Readings: Connie Willis, Passage Jonathan Lethem, 1998. "Why Can't We All Live Together?: A Vision of Genre Paradise Lost," New York Review of Science Fiction, (September), no. 121, Vol. 11, no. 1

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