English 180Z

Description

This course will examine in depth the history of speculative fiction and its engagement with the themes and topics of the new life sciences, representation of cloning, ecological dystopias, hybrid life-forms, genetic engineering dystopias. While science is the thematic point of departure of speculative fiction, the concerns of this course will be the literary. How do literary encounters with the projected realities of the new biology revise our conceptions of the subject? There is much in the science fiction canon that addresses the pressing issues of our current turbulent moment of pandemic and resurgent racism. Pertinent works have been added to the syllabus.

Novels: Ursula LeGuin, The Dispossessed; Victor La Valle, The Ballad of Black Tom; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad

Films: The Andromeda Strain; 28 Days Later; Get Out