Working from an expansive notion of what constitutes science fiction and fantasy literature, this class delved into how these genres and other sub genres that make up speculative fiction are particularly interested in what it means to be human beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present day.
The class devoted substantial time to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as the first fully-fledged science fiction novel, as well as classic science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick and contemporary writers Nnedi Okorafor and P. Djèlí Clark, whose novellas are redefining the intersections of science fiction and fantasy in terms of structure and content.
Course assignments will focus on effective close readings of texts in writing persuasive analysis essays and using scholarly sources to support arguments made in those essays.