Gender, Sexuality, and Literature (361-0-22)

Topic

Science Fiction & Social Justice

Instructors

Ashley Helen-Louise King

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-425: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Topic: Science Fiction & Social Justice.

This course will examine major utopian and dystopian texts in relation to social justice issues in the twentieth and twenty-first century, while following the stories of artists, organizers, and communities that have used speculative world-building to imagine livable, sustainable futures. We will focus on how feminist, anarchist, LGBTQ, and Afrofuturist art and activism have contributed to a substantial critical discourse on the intersections of science, technology, ecology, war, race, gender, sexuality, health, and ability. We will further examine how artists and activists have understood religion as both impediment and partner to social justice work, while alternatively embracing, subverting, and defying religious authority. We will attend to how religious myths and imagery are sampled and remixed by science fiction authors to plot an alternative course for world history.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify major texts, events, people, and issues that have shaped science fiction and social justice activism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries 2. Evaluate how science fiction and activist groups have contributed to intersectional understandings of science and technology, human embodiment, and religion 3. Employ utopian and dystopian frameworks to analyze diverse media texts and develop strategies for addressing real social issues

Class Materials (Required)

1. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (ISBN: 978-0061054884, $7.99) 2. Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (ISBN: 978-0446675505, $15.99) (Other required readings will be available on Canvas)

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area