Space is the Place: Writing About Science Fiction

In this seminar students will explore some of the more important science fiction writing from the early twentieth century to the present, as well as enhance their writing and critical thinking skills as they confront the imaginative experiences and ideas presented within the literature.  In-class discussions of the readings will include the standard topics involved in analyzing any type of fiction–character development, plot structure, tone, etc.–but special emphasis will be placed on those themes frequently stressed in science fiction, such as the relationship between human and machine, between scientific exploration for social progress and discovery for its own sake, between ourselves and the Other and the otherworldly.  In addition to these themes, and others, one question that undoubtedly will reappear is what do our own utopian and dystopian visions of the future reveal about ourselves, now, in our own time.