Schedule of readings:
Assigned readings should be completed before the scheduled date. Most assigned readings not included in the books ordered for the class are available as pdf files on the “Files” page of the Canvas site for the class (see the left margin of the Canvas front page for the “Files” link). Alternately, some short works are available online, at the links in the schedule of readings below. Suggested readings are not required but are instead provided as extra reading on topics that will be touched on in class; I will usually refer to those readings, but I will not assume that students have already read the suggested works.
Week 1.
Jan. 4: Introduction to the course
Week 2.
Jan. 9: Science fiction of the present moment
Sofia Samatar, “The Red Thread”
Tochi Onyebuchi, “How to Pay Reparations: A Documentary”
MKRNYILGLD, “The CRISPR Cookbook: A Guide to Biohacking Your Own Abortion in a Post-Roe World”
Ida Yoshinaga, “Science Fiction Studies 3.0: Re-networking our Hive Mind”
Suggested: Joy Sanchez-Taylor, “’An Image of the Future’”
Suggested: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, “Science Fiction and This Moment”
Jan. 11: Speculative aesthetics: Estrangements, transgressions, limits, alterity
Ted Chiang, “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Fiction”
Drew Hayden Taylor, “I Am . . . Am I”
Steven Shaviro, “Thinking Like a Philosopher”
Suggested: Darko Suvin, chapters 1 and 4 from Metamorphoses of Science Fiction
Week 3.
Jan. 16: Asian science fiction
Ken Liu, “Ghost Days”
Ken Liu, “Seven Birthdays”
Aliette de Bodard, “The Universe of Xuya,” available online at https://www.aliettedebodard.com/bibliography/novels/the-universe-of-xuya/
Aliette de Bodard, “Immersion,” available online at https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/debodard_06_12/
Aliette de Bodard, “The Waiting Stars,” available online at https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/debodard_06_17_reprint/
S.L. Huang, “Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness”
Suggested: Kodwo Eshun, “Further Considerations on Afrofuturism,” available online at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/48294
Suggested: Michelle N. Huang, “The Posthuman Subject In/Of Asian American Literature,” available online at
Huang's essay can also be found at this link, through the UW library: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780190699628.001.0001/acref-9780190699628-e-921?rskey=P4L9mI&result=89
Jan. 18: Climate fiction and solarpunk: Dystopian and utopian thinking
Mark Fisher, “It’s Easier to Imagine the End of the World than the End of Capitalism,” chapter 1 in Capitalist Realism
Debbie Urbanski, “An Incomplete Timeline of What We Tried,” available online at https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwvgeq/an-incomplete-timeline-of-what-we-tried
Malka Older, “Sturdy Lantern and Ladders”
Vandana Singh, “Indra’s Web”
Octavia Cade, “The History of a Coral Future”
Week 4.
Jan. 23: Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future
Eugene Thacker, “Clouds of Unknowing,” introduction to The Horror of Philosophy Vol. 1
Jan. 25: Robinson, The Ministry for the Future
Week 5.
Jan. 30: Robinson, The Ministry for the Future
Fabio Fernandes, “Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 (2017)/Logistic Utopia”
Suggested: Fredric Jameson, “Varieties of the Utopian,” from Archeologies of Desire
Feb. 1: Robinson, The Ministry for the Future
Week 6.
For assignment option 3, first short essay due, Monday, February 5, by email to tfoster@uw.edu
Feb. 6: Robinson, The Ministry for the Future
Feb. 8: Indigenous futurisms
Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
Moniquill Blackgoose, “Musing about Native Steampunk,” available online at https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/14393053317/musing-about-native-steampunk
Week 7.
Feb. 13: Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
Grace Dillon, “Imagining Indigenous Futurisms”
Feb. 15: Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
Week 8.
For assignment option 1, two sample annotated bibliography entries due by Mon., Feb. 19, by email to tfoster@uw.edu
For assignment option 2, 2-page proposal for final paper due by Mon., Feb. 19, by email to tfoster@uw.edu
Feb. 20: Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
Suggested: Grace Dillon, “Indigenous Scientific Literacies in Nalo Hopkinson’s Ceremonial Worlds”
Feb. 22: Stephen Graham Jones and Davide Gianfelice, Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus
Suggested: Bryan Kamaoli Kuwadu, “Na Kia’l Mauna, Ka Pu’uhonua o Pu’uhuluhulu at the Mauna Kea Access Road (2019)/An SF Sovereignty Story”
Week 9.
Feb. 27: Afrofuturisms
Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford, LaGuardia
Suggested, Zakkiyah Iman Jackson, “On Becoming Human: An Introduction”
Feb. 29: Estrangements of race and disability
Martha Wells, All Systems Red
Week 10.
March 5: Martha Wells, All Systems Red
Suggested: Vina Jie-Min Prasad, “Fandom for Robots,” available online at https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/
Suggested: Sami Schalk, “Introduction” to Bodyminds Reimagined
March 7: No class meeting; extra office hours scheduled, in my office in Padelford 424-B
March 13: All final papers and annotated bibliographies due, by email to tfoster@uw.edu