Science Fiction

4.0 credits

With recent advances in artificial intelligence, space exploration, and molecular biology—as well as a variety of social, health, and environmental crises—life in the 21st-century is increasingly Science Fiction-like. Moreover, mainstream contemporary literature increasingly draws from Science Fiction for formal innovations and thematic insights. This course focuses on the Science Fiction short story to introduce students to the history and diversity of this genre, including European literary antecedents, early 20th-century pulp fiction, the Golden Age, the New Wave, cyberpunk, Afrofuturism, and beyond. The course also features works of cultural criticism that demonstrate how the genre has addressed, often in advance, a variety of real-world topics. Course requirements include periodic one-page Reading Responses, an in-class presentation, and a formal paper, as well as class attendance and participation.