English 44 - Spring, 2011

Introductory Topics in Fiction

Topic: Narratives of Technology

Class Information

Instructor: Milburn, Colin
CRN: 32234
Time: TR 10:30-11:50
Location: 206 Olson

Description

As science and technology have come to play an increasingly prominent role in everyday life, literary fictions have provided ways for understanding and shaping the social effects of technological change. This course surveys major novels and short stories from the end of the nineteenth century to the present, investigating fictional responses to the impacts of technoscience. By studying fiction in its satirical, naturalist, modernist and postmodernist modes, we will see how literature has alternatively confronted, embraced, or merged with the evolving technological landscape, from the factory system, to modern warfare, to the biomedical sciences, and finally to cybernetics, nanotechnology, and informatics. Readings from Twain, Wells, Sinclair, Tiptree, Lewis, Vonnegut, Gibson, and King will explore themes of experimentation (literary, technical and social); the boundaries between laboratory, factory and society; technological determinism versus historical accident; and the fate of the human body in advanced technocultures.

Grading

2 essays, midterm, and final examination

Texts

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain
The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis
Cell, Stephen King
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon)
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Neuromancer, William Gibson