This seminar hones in on dystopian fiction, one of today’s most popular speculative genres, reading it as a critique of current and historical social and political formations, national and global cultures, capitalist processes, and dominant ideas about gender, race, sexuality and class—that is, the collection of ideas that together comprise the hegemonic, or “natural” order of things. “The question of history” in the course title is not a single question but rather a series of interrelated questions about how dystopian worlds are rendered “uncanny” (Freud) so that actual dystopian pasts (those that have been lived through by some or are in fact ongoing) may be critically examined in and through fictional representation. Of particular concern will be the treatment of Atlantic slavery, settler colonialism, climate disaster, the holocaust of World War II and the modern ascent of fascism. How are these “histories” invoked in dystopian texts and to what end? How are they disaggregated and/or “constellated” (Walter Benjamin) and to what end? Throughout the quarter we will treat a range of theoretical and critical writings that will help us to explore genre conventions, and debates about the narration of history, critical fabulation, and the depiction of collective historical trauma. While dystopian representations are often bleak, some Marxist critics argue that they may also inspire transformation insofar as they catalyze unique forms of critical thinking about our present moment of reading. Overall, we will attempt to stay afloat by locating the utopian impulses that are potentially embedded within dystopian fictions and/or in our collective analysis of them.
Keywords: speculative fiction, history, historical trauma, historical narration, historical memory, critical fabulation, Atlantic slavery, settler colonialism, climate disaster, the holocaust of WWII, fascism.