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 seven 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, Vandana Singh’s story “Indra’s Web” is listed under the file name “Singh.indrasweb.pdf”).
Week 1.
September 26: Introduction to the course
Week 2. Defining utopianism
October 1: Darko Suvin, “Defining the Literary Genre of Utopia,” chapter 3 from Metamorphoses of Science Fiction
Lyman Tower Sargent, “The Three Faces of Utopianism Revisited”; available online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/20719246
October 3: Fredric Jameson, “Varieties of the Utopian”
Mark Fisher, “It’s Easier to Imagine the End of the World than the End of Capitalism”
Ursula K. Le Gurin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
N.K. Jemisin, “The Ones Who Stay and Fight”
Suggested only: Darko Suvin, chapters 1 and 4, from Metamorphoses of Science Fiction
Week 3. Utopian critiques of capitalism
October 8: Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000-1887
October 10: Finish Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000-1887
William Morris’s review of Bellamy’s Looking Backward and Bellamy’s review of Morris’s News from Nowhere; from The Utopia Reader, eds. Claeys and Sargent
Week 4. Feminist utopias
October 15: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
Suggested: Frances Bartkowski, “Introduction” to Feminist Utopias
Suggested: Jane L. Donawerth and Carol A. Kolmerton, “Introduction” to Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference
October 17: Finish Gilman, Herland
Joanna Russ, “When It Changed”
Suggested only, James M. Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “The Women Men Don’t See”
Week 5. Environmentalism and Ecotopian writing
October 22: Excerpt from Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia
Vandana Singh, “Indra’s Web”
Malka Older, “Sturdy Ladders and Lanterns”
Suggested only: Anahid Neressian, “Utopia’s Afterlife in the Anthropocene”
October 24: No class (I will be holding extra office hours during our regular meeting time)
First papers due, Friday, October 25, by email to tfoster@uw.edu
Week 6. Black utopianism
October 29: Sutton E. Griggs, Imperium in Imperio
Avery Gordon, “Something More Powerful than Skepticism”
Suggested only: Edward Johnson, Light Ahead for the Negro
October 31: Finish Griggs, Imperium in Imperio
Suggested only: Tochi Onyebuchi, “How to Pay Reparations: A Documentary”
Suggested only: Jayna Brown, “Introduction” to Black Utopias
Week 7.
November 5: Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood
W.E. B. Du Bois, “The Comet”
February 15: Finish Hopkins, Of One Blood
Week 8:
November 12: George S. Schuyler, Black No More
November 14: Finish Schuyler, Black No More
Week 9. Critical utopias
November 19: Ursula K. Le Guin, Lathe of Heaven
Suggested only: Tom Moylan, “The Literary Utopia”
November 21: Finish Le Guin, Lathe of Heaven
Week 10. Decolonial utopias
November 26: Nisi Shawl, Everfair
Suggested only: Sofia Samatar, “The Red Thread”
November 28: No class; Thanksgiving holiday
Week 11.
December 3: Shawl, Everfair
Suggested only: Joy Sanchez-Taylor, “’An Image of Tomorrow,’” introduction to Diverse Futures
December 5: Finish Shawl, Everfair
Final papers due, Wednesday, December 11, by 5 p.m., by email to tfoster@uw.edu