Course Syllabus

ENGL 2130 Science Fiction Literature

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce students to science fiction and examines the contemporary history of the genre using several representative texts. The course will focus on relevant literary conventions and terms, historical influences, textual analysis, interpretative methodologies, synthesis, critical thinking, and writing.

Justification

This course allows students to explore a variety of political, philosophical, and social viewpoints reflected in science fiction literature. Because science fiction is very reflective of the time in which it was created, the course enables students to see historical developments through the lens of this fiction. This class enables students to appreciate the aesthetic value of science fiction. This course will transfer as general education, elective, or major credit. It fulfills general education credit within the Humanities category (HU).

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to understand the value of literature in making meaning within evolving cultural contexts. Students will be able to read and discuss a selection of significant and representative science fiction texts in order to understand its development and effect across peoples, times, and places. Students will learn about culture and the physical world, including impacts by various forms of technology, by reading and discussion science fiction literature.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to apply the disciplinary research methodology of primary text close reading and analysis.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to make connections between readings and various areas of the physical and life sciences, social sciences, and other relevant disciplines in order to better contextualize, understand, and respond to works of science fiction literature.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to critically evaluate rhetorical choices authors make in order to understand and interpret literature. Students will be able to understand the development of ideas, movements, and genres in science fiction literature as reflected through representative texts. Students will demonstrate their ability to read and think critically about literature, understand its context, and interpret meaning.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read a variety of science fiction texts and use this reading as the basis for analysis that reflects the ongoing relevance of these texts. Students will be able to identify philosophical questions about the relationship between humanity, technology, and science. Students will be able to articulate the ways in which authors have asked and answered these questions and join their voices to the larger academic conversation. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read a variety of science fiction texts and use this reading as the basis for analysis that reflects the ongoing relevance of these texts. Students will be able to identify philosophical questions about the relationship between humanity, technology, and science. Students will be able to articulate the ways in which authors have asked and answered these questions and join their voices to the larger academic conversation.
2. EXPLAIN: Explain how humanities artifacts take on meaning within networks or systems (such as languages, cultures, values, and worldviews) that account for the complexities and uncertainties of the human condition. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to read texts closely to examine how the language, time period, socio-political messages, etc. affect how we understand a text in the present and dialectically in relation to others such artifacts. Students will understand how knowledge is created, shaped, shared, experienced, etc. within the field of literature and beyond, and how history, audience, literary strategies, and personal biases impact the reading and understanding of a text.
3. ANALYZE: Analyze humanities artifacts according to humanities methodologies, such as a close analysis, questioning, reasoning, interpretation, and critical thinking. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to engage in close-text reading of science fiction literature, using critical thinking to question, reason, and interpret a text and its larger interdisciplinary connections.
4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Compare and contrast diverse humanistic perspectives across cultures, communities, and/or time periods to explain how people make meaning of their lives. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read a variety of texts from different time periods and written by varied authors. Students will be able to connect texts and their meanings across time, geography, and community, recognizing shared human experiences. They will be able to examine and discuss representative works of science fiction literature within an interdisciplinary, informed context, recognizing connections with contemporary culture.
5. APPLY: Using humanities perspectives, reflect on big questions related to aesthetics, values, meaning, and ethics and how those apply to their own lives.  Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to reflect on, and apply, literary texts and associated ideas and questions within the contexts of their individual experiences and larger community. They will be able to examine relevant ethical complexities and values in representative science fiction texts and explore how they connect with their contemporary experiences.

Course Content

Centering on close reading of literary works and class discussion, ENGL 2130 will focus on key authors and texts in the science fiction canon. While the works may change each semester, their historical/philosophical/aesthetic importance will not. Through reading and discussing these texts, students will explore important questions such as how literature both reflects and shapes cultural currents, what it means to be human in a technological age, how technology is changing our understanding of the world, etc.