ENGL4897: Science Fiction (52316)

Menke, Richard

MW 1 :25 PM

Park Hall 0144


This course will consider science fiction as a literary genre and as part of our cultural imaginary, with a thematic emphasis on “cli-fi”—fictions of climate change, ecological crisis, or altered ecologies. As part of this focus, the course will also touch on other “sf-adjacent” modes and genres—for instance, fantasy fiction, slipstream fiction, weird fiction, eco-horror, utopian/dystopian fiction, nonfictional futurism.

Main readings:

  • Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable  (U of Chicago, ISBN 9780226526812)
  • J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World (Liveright, 9780871403629)
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven (Scribner, 1416556966)
  • Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (Grand Central, 0446675504)
  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (Anchor, 0385721676)
  • Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation (Farrar Strauss, 0374104093)
  • N. K. Jemison, The Fifth Season (Orbit, 0316229296)
  • David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth (Penguin Random House, 9781984826589)
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 (Orbit, 031626234X)
  • Corey Doctorow, Walkaway (Tor, 0765392771)