ANG6157 Studies in Popular LiteratureWinter 2016
Science-Fiction and Fantasy
Description:
This course will explore the intersection of fantasy and science fiction to engage with gender representations and popular culture. The latter has a fraught place in academe, with its potentially derogative qualitative label on works of literature and other media (the so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ labels). Students will be exposed to a range of writings from the 1960s to the present in a critical framework that includes cultural studies, new media studies, and gender studies. Discussions will also include the parodic elements inherent in popular culture. Finally, all the works considered in this course will demonstrate how popular culture constantly engages with contemporary historical and political issues.
Requirements:
- Two 15′-18′ / 2,500-2,800 words (excluding notes and works cited) in-class presentations on one of the works studied: 60% (30% each) [Final versions of the presentations must be emailed to the instructor no later than 6pm the night before.] Presentations should be on any aspect of the work under consideration on the day selected by the students. Students should bear in mind that the grade will be based on the written essay, not on the oral delivery.
- One question to Jason Haslam on 9 February (10%)
- Revised and expanded version of one of the in-class presentations to be delivered during a day-long conference on Tuesday 19 April (25′-30′ / 3,500-4,500 words (excluding notes and works cited): 30%) [Final versions of the presentations must be emailed to the instructor no later than 6pm on Friday 15 April.] Students should bear in mind that, this time, the grade will be based on the version delivered during the conference.
Schedule:
- Monday 11 January: Introduction
- Monday 18 January: Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness
- Monday 25 January: Alan Moore and David Gibbons’ Watchmen
- Monday 1 February: Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
- Monday 8 February: Samuel Delany’s Flight of Neveryon
- Extra class meeting: Tuesday 9 February @ 10am: Lecture by Jason Haslam on Flight of Neveryon
- Monday 15 February: Octavia Butler’s Fledgling
- Monday 22 February: Class cancelled
- Monday 29 February: Reading Week
- Monday 7 March: Class cancelled
- Monday 14: Julia Golding’s Mel Foster and the Demon Butler
- Extra class meeting: Tuesday 15 March: Viewing of Galaxy Quest and one episode of Humans
- Monday 21 March: Ian Tregillis’ The Mechanical
- Monday 28 March: Easter Monday
- Monday 4 April: John Scalzi’s Redshirts
- Monday 11 April: Revision work @ home
- Tuesday 19 April: Day-long Conference
Secondary Criticism:
18/01
-
Martin Bickman, “Le Guin’s the Left Hand of Darkness: Form and Content“, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 42-47
- Wendy Gay Pearson, “Postcolonialism/s, Gender/s, Sexuality/ies and the Legacy of ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’: Gwyneth Jones’s Aleutians Talk Back“, The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, Science Fiction (2007), pp. 182-196
25/01
- Brandy Ball Blake, “Watchmen: The Graphic Novel as Trauma Fiction“, Image/Text, Vol. 5, No. 1
- Paul youngquist, “Stats of Exception: Watchmen and Nixon’s NSC“, Postmodern Culture, Vol. 23, No. 2 (January 2013)
01/02
- Jonah Ringlestein, “Real or Not Real: The Hunger Games as Transmediated Religion“, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Vol. 25, No, 3 (Fall 2013) pp. 372-387
- Kathryn Strong Hansen, “The Metamorphosis of Katniss Everdeen: The Hunger Games, Myth, and Femininity“, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Summer 2015) pp. 161-178
08/02
- Georgia Johnston, “Discourses Of Autobiographical Desires: Samuel Delany’s Nevèrÿon Series“, Biography 30.1 (2007) 48-60
-
Yes Battis, “Delany’s Queer Markets: Nevèrÿon and the Texture of Capital“, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3 (November 2009), pp. 478-489
15/02
- Marty Fink, “AIDS Vampires: Reimagining Illness in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling“,Science-Fiction Studies 37, 3 (2010)
- Pramod K. Nayar, “A New Biological Citizenship: Posthumanism in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling“,Modern Fiction Studies 58, 4 (2012)
14/03
- Jules David Law, “Being There: Gothic Violence and Virtuality in Frankenstein, Dracula, and Strange Days“, ELH 73, 4 (Winter 2006)
- John Rieder, “Life Writing and Science Fiction: Constructing Identities and Constructing Genres“, Biography 30, 1 (Winter 2007)
21/03
- De Witt Douglas Kilgore, “Difference Engine: Aliens, Robots, and Other Racial Matters in the History of Science Fiction“, Science Fiction Studies 37, 1 (March 2010)
- Christopher A. Sims, “The Dangers of Individualism and the Human Relationship to Technology in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“, Science Fiction Studies 36, 1 (Mar., 2009)
04/04
- Patricia Vettel-Becker, “Space and the Single Girl: Star Trek, Aesthetics, and 1960s Femininity“, Frontier: A Journal of Women Studies 35, 2 (2014)
- Steffen Hantke, “Star Trek’s Mirror Universe Episodes and US Military Culture through the Eyes of the Other“, Science-Fiction Studies 41, 3 (2014)
This content has been updated on January 4, 2020 at 22 h 10 min.