This is going to be a fun semester. I have loved Sci-Fi as a genre since I was a child, and unlike St. Paul, I have yet to put away my childish things. Science Fiction is not pure escapism for me. That oft levied criticism ignores two major factors of Science Fiction literature...
1. Science Fiction allows writers to express fantastic visions of the future, futures that must be justified rationally. These explorations of imagination often inspire visionaries in other fields and lead indirectly to true technological progress.
2. Through the darkened glass of fantastic worlds science fiction has proven to be a power voice of political and ideological critique.
This course is designed to be in depth. It will not be a survey of the history of science fiction (although there will be a little of that). It will not be a complete genre study (although there will be more than a little of that). What this class will be is a study in "Ideology" and how it is expressed, subverted, and co-opted through the lens of science fiction literature.
Each six weeks we will cover one book, and there will be one "research question"
Unit 1: How has science fiction been used to support the dominant ideology?
Unit 2: How has science fiction been used to subvert the dominant ideology?
Unit 3: How has the subordination been co-opted by the dominant ideology?
This class will have four major grades per six weeks:
Major Grade 1: Exam on the book
Major Grade 2: Research plan and rough "draft" of unit presentation
Major Grades 3 & 4: Presentation on your examination of the "research question." This is not a presentation on the book for class, rather it should be an examination of a text of your choosing through the critical lens of the "research question." Each presentation will be approximately fifteen minutes.
