ENGL 260 - Science Fiction: From Matrix Baby Cannibals to Brave New Worlds

Cross-Listed as ENVI 260

In the past fifty years science fiction has emerged as the primary cultural form in the Anglophone literary tradition for thinking about the eco-apocalypse: overpopulation, plague, resource depletion, natural and man-made disasters. It has also emerged as the primary cultural form for imagining a sustainable human future, through technological innovation, a balanced human ecosystem, and human flourishing through utopian principles of social justice. In this course we will examine works of science fiction as complex aesthetic achievements, as philosophical inquiries into the nature of being and time, and as theoretical examinations of the challenge of human sustainability. We will engage in intensive readings of contemporary texts, including works by Philip K. Dick, Margaret Atwood, Paolo Bacigalupi, P. D. James, Octavia Bulter, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Charles Stross, Walter Miller, Stanislaw Lem, China Mieville, Cormac McCarthy, and Kazuo Ishiguro. A companion film series will include the Matrix trilogy and other films in the genre. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)