Science Fiction
Topic: Cross-listed with STS - English handling instruction
Class Information
Instructor: Jerng, Mark
CRN: 44514
Time: TR 12:10-1:30
Location: Remote Instruction
GE Areas: Writing Experience
Description
I. Course Description:
Science fiction engages its readers in the cognitive and poetic processes of world-making. As Samuel Delany writes, "The reader of the SF story must create a new world that operates by new laws for each new SF story read." This demand to create a new world significantly revises core notions about the physical body and the material world, the place of humanity, the environment, as well as the political and social organization of worlds. This course will take up science fiction novels, novellas, and short stories from the mid-twentieth century to the present in order to investigate two significant science fictional topics: alien encounters & alternate histories & realities. We will explore these two main topics and the ways that they open up crucial questions: what is the place of the "human" in the world? Can "we" change? What are the interrelations among past, present, and future and/or other organizations of time-space? Can we reproduce a new future? We will read novels by Octavia Butler and, Philip K. Dick and short stories and novellas by Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ted Chiang, Samuel Delany, and N.K. Jemisin.
II. Course Objectives:
-Introduce science fiction as a genre
-Explore two significant topics of the genre - the imagination of alien encounters and alternate realities and histories - and understand their prominent conventions and narrative strategies
-Examine how these topics have been used to explore and challenge historical social formations such as xenophobia; racial, economic, and gendered inequality; the place of the human; the possibilities of change; the building of more ethical worlds.
-Investigate the social and political dimensions of speculative storytelling & poetic strategies
-Develop and refine students' skills in analyzing textual evidence with close attention to language, rhetoric, poetics, narrative strategies, uses of frames and perspectives, among others
-Develop and refine students' skills in producing cogent, well-supported arguments
III. Student Learning Outcomes
-Students will be able to identify certain narrative traditions within science fiction and analyze them in relation to historical processes and events (Satisfies the Arts & Humanities GE Requirement)
-Students will be able to interpret the significance of specific tropes and motifs used by science fiction authors within historical and social contexts.
-Students will show an understanding of writers' unique strategies for addressing and contesting complex social realities of colonial, racial, and gendered inequality especially as they shape ideas of identity (personal and collective), history, labor, violence, empathy, and freedom.
-Students will work on skills in textual analysis and textual evidence-based argumentation through feedback on multiple writing assignments (Satisfies the Writing Experience GE Requirement)
-Students will work on the use of secondary sources in situating their ideas within the context of larger debates and intellectual concerns.
A note on textbooks:
The two primary required books are available free via the UC Davis library. All other readings for this course are available free via the course canvas site.
If the Equitable Access program which automatically charges you $199.00 makes sense for your budget in relation to your other classes, I have ordered the two required texts via the UC Davis bookstore.
If the Equitable Access program does not make sense for your budget, you will need to opt out of the program otherwise you will be automatically charged. Again, all of the readings for this course are free either via the UC Davis library or via the course canvas site.
Grading
Course Format:
We will meet synchronously during our regular class time via Zoom. All classes will also be recorded and made available on Canvas. You will be required to attend and participate live a minimum of one class per week. If you can make it to both class sessions each week, that would be great. If you can only make it to one per week, there are forms of asynchronous participation detailed on the syllabus. I want to maximize your ability to engage with course material while also having face-to-face time to build our learning community. I also want to be there (albeit virtually) for you all as much as I can.
If the basic format above does not work with your learning circumstances, then I am happy to be flexible. Please communicate with me and we can develop a schedule and forms of participation that work for you.
Basis for Final Grades
I have organized and weighted the assignments and participation through emphases on: completion of low-stakes writing geared toward generating thoughts in relation to the readings; developing skills in working with textual evidence and analysis; revision and improvement of writing; engagement with lecture and discussion topics; placing the majority of assignments toward the first eight weeks.
Assignments:
Participation & Attendance: 15%
Discussion Posts 40%
Argument & Textual Analysis-Driven Paper: 15%
Final Exam / Paper Revision: 20%
Review of Short Story: 10%
Texts
Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucdavis/detail.action?docID=3306062
The Man In The High Castle, Philip K. Dick
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucdavis/detail.action?docID=3304104