- Autumn 2022
Syllabus Description:
Schedule of readings:
All stories and essays not included in the books ordered for the class are available on the Canvas site for the course, in the form of pdf files, or available online at the links given in the schedule below. Any title listed below that is not one of the five books I ordered or that does not have a link attached can be found on the “Files” page of the Canvas site, where the pdf files are listed alphabetically under the author’s last name (for example, Arthur C. Clarke’s story “Reunion” is listed under the file name “Clarke.reunion.pdf”).
Important: Some of the readings below are labeled as “suggested only.” Suggested readings are not required; I will not assume you have read the suggested materials. I am likely to refer to them in class, but they are included primarily for students who are especially interested in the topic of the day’s class.
Week 1.
September 29: Introduction to the course
Week 2.
October 4: Theorizing the genre
Darko Suvin, chapters 1 and 4, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction
Fredric Brown, “Preposterous”
Arthur C. Clarke, “Reunion”
Suggested only: Samuel R. Delany, “About 5750 Words”
October 6: Pulp adventure: Speculative fiction, travel writing, and colonialism
Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
Gwyneth Jones, “Metempsychosis of the Machine”
Suggested only: John Rieder, chapter 1 from Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction
Week 3.
October 11: Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
Robert Sheckley, “The Native Problem”
Poul Anderson, “The Disinherited”
Suggested only: Drew Hayden Taylor, “I Am . . . Am I”
Suggested only: Ray Bradbury, “Way Up in the Middle of the Air”
October 13: Hard SF (starting in the 1940s)
David Hartwell, “Hard Science Fiction”
Hal Clement, “Proof”
Robert A. Heinlein, “Columbus Was a Dope”
Isaac Asimov, “Evidence”
Arthur C. Clarke, “The Sentinel”
Week 4.
October 18: Tom Godwin, “The Cold Equations”
James Blish, “Watershed”
Clifford Simak, “Desertion”
Alfred Bester, “Fondly Fahrenheit”
October 20: Alternate traditions: Literary SF (1950s)
Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human
Week 5.
October 25: Sturgeon, More Than Human
October 27: New Wave SF (1960s and 70s)
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven
First papers due Friday, October 28, by 5 p.m.; email to tfoster@uw.edu
Week 6.
November 1: LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven
Suggested only: Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
November 3: Alternate traditions: Feminist SF
Sarah Lefanu, “Authority and Sentiment: Is There a Women’s Science Fiction?”
C.L. Moore, “No Woman Born”
Judith Merril, “That Only a Mother”
Joanna Russ, “When It Changed”
Week 7.
November 8: James M. Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “The Women Men Don’t See”
Octavia Butler, “Amnesty”
Sofia Samatar, “The Red Thread”
November 10: Cyberpunk (1980s and 90s)
William Gibson, Neuromancer
Bruce Sterling, “Preface” to Mirrorshades
Week 8.
November 15: Gibson, Neuromancer
Suggested only: James M. Tiptree (Alice Sheldon), “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”
November 17: Ethnicity, Race, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
Suggested only: Chelsea Vowel, “Aniskohocikan”
Week 9.
November 22: Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
Suggested only: Ken Liu, “Ghost Days,” available online at http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/ghost-days/
Suggested only: Aliette de Bodard, “Immersion,” available online at
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/debodard_06_12/
November 24: No class; Thanksgiving holiday
Week 10:
November 29: Nisi Shawl, Everfair
Suggested only: Nalo Hopkinson, “Report from Planet Midnight”
December 1: Shawl, Everfair
Suggested only: Kodwo Eshun, “Further Considerations on Afrofuturism”; available online at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/48294 (requires UW login)
Week 11:
December 6: Shawl, Everfair
December 8: Shawl, Everfair
Final papers due, Wednesday, December 14, by 5 p.m., by email to tfoster@uw.edu