Speculative Fiction and the Literature of Imagination

Speculative Fiction and the Literature of Imagination is a seminar in the development of speculative fiction as a form over the last generation, its role in articulating political counternarratives, especially in the case of Afrofuturism, its reliance on imagination as a creative strategy, and its position as a particularly uncompromising outpost of experimental writing. The class will consist of weekly readings, as well as frequent creative assignments on issues raised by particular texts, and will include one presentation on a speculative work by each participant. Readings will include Mary Shelley, Sun Ra, Ursula LeGuin, Octavia Butler, William Gibson, N. K. Jemisin, and Ted Chiang, etc.