Lavender, Isiah
TR 12:45 PM
Park Hall 126
ENGL 4899: Topics in Science Fiction—Science Fiction Short Stories
For some, science fiction is defined as the literature of ideas. For others, SF is the signature language of the twenty-first century. And for the rest, sci-fi represents the literature of change. As a genre, the best way to explore its sense of wonder at the possibilities presented—both good and bad—is through its short stories. Science fiction’s roots, its traditions and motifs—alien encounters, artificial life, time travel, utopia and dystopia, apocalypse, evolution, alternate history, space travel, virtual reality, robots, gender and sexuality, environmentalism, etc.—comprise the sf megatext that surrounds us. All of us know it without being aware with respect to the shared images, settings, plots, characters, and themes generated across our media consumption—books, films, streaming services, video games, graphic novels, apps, and even marketing. Short stories provide the key to unlocking our individual experiences with science fiction, its megatext, and our fascinations with the future. With that said, we will read lots of short stories on a variety of subjects across a breadth of time.
Anthologies under consideration:
Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall
A People’s Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers, edited by John Joseph Adams and Victor LaValle
The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois
The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by Lisa Yaszek
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, edited by Nisi Shawl
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, edited and translated by Ken Liu
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight
Ultimately, I will choose two or three of these anthologies to go along with a bunch of PDFs.