Dystopian Fictions

Catalog description

Science fiction is centrally concerned with the question, “How could things be different?” Often, it has answered that question by imagining that things are much worse. And sometimes, it has imagined that things are much better. This is a course about dystopian and utopian science fiction, focusing primarily on novels and short fiction; our readings may include George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream,” Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, and Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. What constitutes dystopia within these texts? How do they envision utopia? How do forms of injustice present in today’s world—such as those involving race and gender—shape these visions of alternate societies? How do those societies relate to the world in which the author was writing, or to our contemporary moment? What responses do dystopian fictions solicit from their readers? Our discussion of these and other questions will be informed by readings that provide historical, critical, and theoretical contexts. Work for the course will likely include short response papers, a class blogging assignment, leading discussion, and two formal papers, the second of which will give students the opportunity to investigate a work of dystopian or utopian fiction of their choosing.