English 166
Special Topics: Black Science Fiction
| Section | Semester | Instructor | Time | Location | Course Areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Fall 2017 | Serpell, C. Namwali
|
TTh 3:30-5 | 130 Wheeler |
Book List
Butler, Octavia: Dawn; Delaney, Samuel: Babel-17; Duffy, Damian: Kindred: A Graphic Novel; Johnson, Mat: Pym; LaValle, Victor: Destroyer; Laymon, Kiese: Long Division; Lovecraft, H.P.: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; Schuyler, George: Black No More
Other Readings and Media
Screenings of a Star Trek episode (1966), Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974), John Sayles, The Brother from Another Planet (1984). Stories by Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, W.E.B. DuBois, Samuel Delaney, Derrick Bell.
Description
This course addresses two genres—black fiction and science fiction—at their point of intersection, which is sometimes called Afrofuturism. The umbrella term “black fiction” will include texts that issue out of and speculate about the African-American experience. The category “science fiction” will comprise texts that speculate about alternative, cosmic, dystopian, and future worlds. Overlapping—and mutually transforming—concepts will include: genetics, race, diaspora, miscegenation, double consciousness, technology, ecology, biology, language, history, futurity, space (inner and outer), and, of course, the alien. We will consider stories, novels, graphic novels, comics, films, music, and television clips.
Other Recent Sections of This Course
spring, 2021 |
||
166/1 |
||
166/3 |
||
166/4 |
||
166/5 |
Muza, Anna
|
|
summer, 2021 |
||
166/1 |
||
166/2 |
||
166/3 |
||
fall, 2020 |
||
166/1 |
||
166/3 |
||
spring, 2020 |
||
166/2 |
||
166/3 |
||
166/4 |
Special Topics: Pomo: Exploring the Landscape of Postmodernism |
|
166/5 |
||
166/6 |
Special Topics: Art of Writing: Grant Writing, Food Writing, Food Justice |
|
166/7 |
||
summer, 2020 |
||
166/1 |
Special Topics: Medieval Fantasy from Tolkien to Game of Thrones |
|
166/2 |
||
166/3 |
||
fall, 2019 |
||
166/1 |
Special Topics: Getting Global: Literature & Film of an Expanding & Unequal World |
|
166/2 |
||
166/3 |
||
166/4 |
Special Topics: Literatures of the Asian Diaspora in America |
|
166/7 |
||
166/8 |
||
166/9 |
||
166/11 |
Naiman, Eric
|
|
spring, 2019 |
||
166/1 |
||
166/2 |
||
166/4 |
||
166/5 |
Special Topics: Asian American Literature - World, Nation, Locality |
|
166/6 |
||
166/7 |
Muza, Anna
|
|
fall, 2018 |
||
166/2 |
||
166/3 |
Special Topics: Journeys: British World-Building, c. 700-1700 |
|
166/4 |
||
166/5 |
||
spring, 2018 |
||
166/1 |
||
166/2 |
||
166/3 |
||
166/4 |
||
166/5 |
||
166/6 |
||
summer, 2018 |
||
166/1 |
||
166/2 |
||
Back to Semester List
University of California, Berkeley
English Department
322 Wheeler Hall,
Berkeley, CA 94720-1030
general phone: 510-642-3467
©UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT