Microsoft Word - WhitsonENGL521.docx Albert Robida “La Sortie de l’opéra l’an 2000.” Lithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 1902. ENGL 521: Nineteenth-Century Speculative Fiction Teaching Philosophy My teaching is informed by critical pedagogy, particularly the work of Paulo Friere, Asao Inue, and Henry Giroux. For Giroux, critical pedagogy means “educating students to take risks and to struggle within ongoing relations of power in order to be able to alter the grounds in which life was lived” (103). You will see that I have scaffolded a variety of active-learning activities and recommended readings. These activities model my belief that different people engage with a course in different ways. Your contributions to these activities are vital and will prove beneficial to your colleagues and to me. My primary purpose as a teacher is to help develop in students what Friere calls conscientização, or critical consciousness. Critical consciousness entails understanding the social, political, ecological, and technological contradictions shaping the uneven distribution of power in our world; and, furthermore, a willingness to intervene in those conflicts on multiple levels. Too many students are marginalized and silence due to what Inue calls the assessment of “white habitus” as an internalization of racist standards of behavior and achievement that are commonly rewarded by University grading. Alternatively, I grade on participation, effort, and the degree to which you help your colleagues struggle against these categories rather than reifying an abstract and oppressive sense of “ability.” We will all struggle to think and work through these categories in different and uneven ways. I hope you seize the opportunity to learn with us about science fiction, power, ideology, and collective agency in a supportive and progressive environment. Major Course Texts (available from the Bookie or online). https://www.amazon.com/Book-Urizen-Facsimile-Color-History/dp/0486298019/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1514934307&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/We-Have-Never-Been-Modern-ebook/dp/B00AQLFQIO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934347&sr=1-1&keywords=we+have+never+been+modern https://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Broadview-Editions-Mary-Shelley/dp/1554811031/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934388&sr=1-1&keywords=frankenstein+third+edition https://www.amazon.com/Island-Doctor-Moreau-Broadview-Editions/dp/1551113279/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934417&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=dr.+moreau+broadivew https://www.amazon.com/She-Rider-Haggard-15-Feb-2006-Paperback/dp/B011T6YM5M/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934443&sr=1-4&keywords=she+broadview https://www.amazon.com/News-Nowhere-William-Morris/dp/1551112671/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934481&sr=1-1&keywords=news+from+nowhere+broadview https://www.amazon.com/Archaeologies-Future-Desire-Science-Fictions/dp/1844675386/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934509&sr=1-1&keywords=archaeologies+of+the+future https://www.amazon.com/Herland-Related-Writings-Broadview-Editions/dp/1551119870/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514934531&sr=1-1&keywords=herland+%2B+broadview https://www.amazon.com/One-Blood-Hidden-Givens-Collection/dp/0743467698/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me= https://www.amazon.com/Kindred-Octavia-E-Butler/dp/0807083690/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1514934570&sr=1-1 Objectives Course Description Darko Suvin claims that science fiction is fundamentally concerned with “cognitive estrangement,” or the presence of some element in the story that transforms how its readers understand their world. In fact, much of the developments in science, economics, and politics in the nineteenth century were also concerned with the new worlds revealed by an increasingly industrialized society. Charles Darwin shocked the world by postulating that natural selection determined the habits of human beings, not any divine plan. Voyages to other parts of the planet were revealing new frontiers and new spaces for capitalism and colonialism to exploit. Machines and unskilled labor were replacing artisans with mechanized and standardized commodities. And the hopes and fears inspired by these new worlds reappeared as dreams and nightmares in speculative fiction: Darwin’s theories became the strange human-like animal hybrids of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, while imperialism inspired the “lost race” novels of H. Rider Haggard and made possible the utopian dreams of William Morris and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This course will show how science fiction articulated the hopes and fears Victorians associated with the future. Such anxieties are a symptom of our inability to imagine the future (or the past) in its alterity. Against liberal promises of perpetual progress in which the notion of eventual inclusion tells the oppressed to stave off revolution and reassure the ruling class, science fiction enacts dramas surrounding the true danger and possibility of a future that is entirely unpredictable. In addition to the authors mentioned above, this course will show how women and authors of color used science fiction to challenge the oppressions of their day and imagine futures that asserted their freedom and power. Produce close readings of key texts that are historically- informed and evidence-based. Find relationships between course content and specific research interests or areas of teaching. Incorporate theoretical perspectives and historical sources into critical readings of the nineteenth century Respond to critiques of critical theory Discussion Leader On two days of your choosing, I will ask you to work in groups of two to create a 10-minute presentation associated in some way with the readings of the day, along with 7 questions designed to facilitate discussion of the content and your presentation. The lecture can be used to help you conceptualize your final project. You may also choose to have students engage in some kind of active learning exercise that illustrates the main points you make during your presentation. For examples, see the schedule. 30 Points or 30% total; 15 points each. Major Projects: 100 Points Possible ;lkj;lkj;lkjlk Final Project You will see one hour on most weeks devoted to a “workshop.” These days are designed to help you conceptualize, draft, and revise a final project. This project can take the shape of a traditional seminar paper in which you synthesize a primary reading with secondary and tertiary sources that is related to course content in some broadly- conceived way. You may also decide to engage in a multimodal or digital project. Whereas the teaching of various tools for digital scholarship is beyond the scope of this particular class, I am happy to help you think through these possibilities and incorporate milestones into the class’s workshop schedule. 40 points or 40%. Text Engagements For each week of class, I will ask you to write a one-paragraph response to the readings for that day. This should include an initial reaction to the readings and at least one question that the readings prompted for you. The question can be one of clarification, if you didn’t understand part of the novel or theoretical reading, or it can be more of an open-ended question meant to foster discussion. We will use these engagements often in class, so please upload them no later than midnight on the Sunday prior to our Monday meeting. 30 points total or 30%. Schedule Assignments Are Due on Date Listed. Schedule May Change with Notice from Me. An Asterisk Before a Reading Denotes A Reading That Is Available On Blackboard. Date Topics/Theme In-Class Readings Due Assignments Due 1/8 Science and Fiction Introductions and Course Overview Discussion: Quoted sections by Darko Suvin and China Mieville on the definition of science fiction. Sign up for meetings and presentations. In-class selections from: Darko Suvin, “On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre.” College English. 34.3 (1972): 372-82. John Newsinger, “Fantasy and Revolution: An Interview with China Mieville.” International Socialism Journal. 88 (2000). Pick a Spinoza keyword to explore for next week. 1/15 Self and World Keywords: Define and explore the interrelationship amongst Deleuze’s Spinoza Keywords from Chapter 4. Use references from the Levinson and Deleuze readings to contextualize your definition. Discussion: Blake, Wordsworth - Ideolgy and Estrangement in the nineteenth-century. Workshop: Pick three different texts and three different topics that you are interested in exploring for William Blake, The Book of Urizen. Dover: Dover Publications, 2012. William Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.” RCHS Hypertext Reader. Marjorie Levinson, “A Motion and A Spirit: Romancing Spinoza.” Studies in Romanticism. 46.4 (2007): 367-408. Gilles Deleuze, “Life of Spinoza,” “On the Difference between the Ethics and a Morality,” and “Spinoza and Us.” Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. Tran. Helpful: Gregory Colon-Semenza. “The Structure of Your Graduate Career: An Ideal Plan” and “Publishing” http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj88/newsinger.htm http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj88/newsinger.htm http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj88/newsinger.htm http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/RCOldSite/www/rchs/reader/tabbey.html http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/RCOldSite/www/rchs/reader/tabbey.html your final project. Talk about your interest, both personal and professional, in class. Robert Hurley. San Francisco: City Life Books, 1988. 3-29; 122-30. 1/22 Nature and Culture Lecture: Spinoza, Deleuze, Latour, and new materialism. Discussion: Actor-Network Theory and Modernity. Workshop: Discuss your proposal. Encourage at least three revisions from each of your colleagues proposals. Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern. Harvard: Harvard UP, 2012. Graham Harman, “We Have Never Been Modern.” Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics. Melbourne: re.press, 2009. 57-70. Write a one-page proposal for your final project. Remember that you are free to write a seminar paper or a multimodal / digital project. Helpful: Gregory Colon-Semenza. “The Seminar Paper.” Eric Hayot. “Showing Your Iceberg” and “Metalanguage.” 1/29 Science and Poetry Footnotes: Pick one footnote and one analogy employed by Darwin in either of the Cantos we read for today. Give us a short history of that aspect of Romantic science and its impact on Darwin’s poem. Discussion: Griffiths’s work on analogy and its impact on nineteenth-century science. What is the relationship between matter, language, and verse driving the early history of evolution? Erasmus Darwin, “Editors Introduction” and “Canto 1” The Botanic Garden Volume 1: The Economy of Vegetation. Ed. Adam Komisaruk and Allison Dushane. London: Routledge, 2017. 1-73. Erasmus Darwin, “Canto 2.” The Botanic Garden Volume 2: The Loves of the Plants. Ed. Adam Komisaruk and Allison Dushane. London: Routledge, 2017. 5-61. Devin Griffiths, “The Intuitions of Analogy in Erasmus Darwin’s Poetics.” SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900. 51.3 (2011): 645-65. Revise your proposal using at least one recommendation you received last week. Helpful: Gregory Colon-Semenza. “Organization and Time Management.” Workshop: Revised proposals. 2/5 Virtual and Real Digital Editions: Pick one of the editions of Frankenstein. Read the introduction and supplemental materials. What is the edition’s editorial approach? What theoretical approach to understanding the novel do you detect in its editorial approach? Discuss with reference to Andrew Burkett’s reading of the various media surrounding Frankenstein. Discussion and Metadata Project: Andy Burkett joins us to discuss his article. We will also annotate Shelley’s “The Mortal Immortal” with hypothesi.s. Discussion: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Third Edition. Ed. D.L. MacDonald and Kathleen Scherf. *Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds. Ed. David Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2017. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Ed. Stuart Curran. Romantic Circles Electronic Editions. Mary Shelley, FrankenMOO. Ed. Ron Broglio and Eric Sonstrem. Romantic Circles Electronic Editions. Mary Shelley, “The Mortal Immortal” Ed. Michael Erbele-Sinatra. Romantic Circles Electronic Editions. *Andrew Burkett, “Mediating Monstrosity: Media, Information, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Studies in Romanticism. (Winter 2012): 51.4. 579-605. 2/12 Civilized and Savage Travel: Pick one of the localities Darwin describes in The Voyage. Compare that description of travel with the framing story from Frankenstein. How does *Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, or, Journal of Researches. New York: P.F. Collier and Son, 1839. “Porto Praya,” “Tierra del Fuego,” Vaplparaiso, Portillo Pass,” Write a 5-page close reading of a primary source. Helpful: Eric Hayot, “The Uneven U” and “Structure and https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein http://homes.lmc.gatech.edu/~broglio/rc/frankenstein/index.htm https://web.hypothes.is/ https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/mws/immortal/index.html Darwin’s depiction of nature compare with Shelley? Discussion: Race and Racism in the theory of evolution. Workshop: Present your 5- page close reading to us. Give us your central arguments and show how you back up these arguments with evidence from the text. “Galapagos Archipelago,” and “Mauritius.” *Canon Schmidtt, “Charles Darwin’s Savage Mnemonics.” Charles Darwin and the Memory of the Human: Evolution, Savages, and South America. Cambridge: Cambridge UP: 2009. 32-57. Subordination.” 2/19 Nature and Ecology Narrative: Pick out two examples from the reading of anthropomorphism in On the Origin of Species. Give us a close reading of how anthropomorphism works in your example and how it compares with Erasmus Darwin’s work on analogy. Discussion: Evolution and the Non-Human. Workshop: Revisions of your close reading. *Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1859. “Introduction,” “Struggle for Existence,” “Natural Selection,” “On the Lapses of Time,” “On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings,” “Recapitulation and Conclusion.” *Gillian Beer, “Fit and Misfitting: Anthropomorphism and the Natural Order.” Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Use at least one piece of advice from last week and revise your close reading. Helpful: Eric Hayot, “A Materialist Theory of Writing” and “How Do Readers Work?” 2/26 Human and Animal Historical Readings: Pick one Appendix from the Broadview edition (not the H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Ed. Mason Harris. Peterborough: Write a draft of your introductory and positioning paragraphs. reviews or Evolution 1), read the supplemental materials, and give us a 10-minute summary on what you learned. Discussion: Animal Studies and Wells. Workshop: Introductions and Scholarly Conversations. Broadview Press, 2009. *Kate Benston, “Experimenting at the Thresholds: Sacrifice, Anthropomorphism, and the Aims of (Critical) Animal Studies.” PMLA. 124.2 (2009): 548-555. Helpful: Eric Hayot, “Introductions” and “Institutional Contexts” 3/5 Human and Machine Industrialists and Revolutionaries: Find one point of contention between Babbage and Marx regarding machinery and labor. What does this disagreement reveal about their sense of human agency? Discussion: Marx and the Non-Human. Workshop: Bibliographies, Secondary and Tertiary Sources. *Charles Babbage, The Economies of Machinery and Manufacture. London: Charles Knight and Pall Mall, 1832. 35-38. “Exerting Forces Too Great for Human Power and Executing Operations Too Delicate for Human Touch,” and “The Division of Labor.” *Karl Marx, Fragment on Machines.” The Grundrisse. Tran. Martin Nicholaus. London: Penguin, 2005, 690-712. *Karl Marx, “The Labour Process and the Valorization Process.” Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume 1. Tran. Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin, 1992. 283-306. *Tamara Ketabgian, “Human Parts and Prosthetic Networks: The Victorian Factory and Mesmeric Forces. The Lives of the Machines: Write a 5-source annotated bibliography of secondary and tertiary sources. Include a one-paragraph description summarizing its content and how you will use it in your paper. Eric Hayot, “Citational Practice” and “Work as Process” https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dcbooks/9544598.0001.001/1:4/--lives-of-machines-the-industrial-imaginary-in-victorian?g=dculture;rgn=div1;view=fulltext;xc=1#4.1 https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dcbooks/9544598.0001.001/1:4/--lives-of-machines-the-industrial-imaginary-in-victorian?g=dculture;rgn=div1;view=fulltext;xc=1#4.1 https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dcbooks/9544598.0001.001/1:4/--lives-of-machines-the-industrial-imaginary-in-victorian?g=dculture;rgn=div1;view=fulltext;xc=1#4.1 The Industrial Imaginary in Victorian Literature and Culture. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 2011. 17-44. 3/12 Fiction and Utopia Historical Readings: Pick one Appendix from the Broadview edition (not the reviews or Evolution 1), read the supplemental materials, and give us a 10-minute summary on what you learned. Discussion: Morris and Williams. Workshop: Outlining and Structure William Morris, The News from Nowhere. Ed. Stephen Arata. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2002. Raymond Williams, “Utopia and Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies 5, no. 3 (1978): 203–14. Bring a draft outline of your final project to class. Helpful: Eric Hayot: “Structure and Subordination” and “Ending Well” 3/19 History and the Future Positioning Jameson and Utopia: Pick one chapter from Archaeologies that demonstrates Wegner’s argument about Jameson in his essay. Tell us what Jameson is arguing and how it revises Williams’s discussion of base and superstructure. Lecture: Freud, Lacan, Marx, and Jameson. Discussion: The Desire Called Utopia Frederic Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. New York: Verso, 2005. “Part 1: The Desire Called Utopia” *Philip E. Wegner, “Other Modernisms: On the Desire Called Utopia.” Periodizing Jameson: Dialectics, the University, and the Desire for Narrative. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2014. 183-203. https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/16/williams16art.htm https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/16/williams16art.htm 3/26 Women and Men Utopias: Examine Jameson’s reading of Bloch and compare it with Munoz’s. How do each theorists reading of desire change their understanding of utopia? Discussion: Gilman and Munoz. Workshop: Present your drafts in class. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland and Related Writings. Ed. Beth Sutton- Ramspeck. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2012. *Jose Estaban Munoz, “Introduction” and “Chapter 1.” Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: NYU Press, 2009. 1-32. Bring the equivalent of 4 pages of material to class that you will merge with the 5-page close reading you’ve already completed. Helpful: Eric Hayot, “Eight Strategies for Getting Writing Done” and “Work as a Process” Colonialism and Occultism Historical Readings: Pick one Appendix from the Broadview edition (not the reviews or Evolution 1), read the supplemental materials, and give us a 10-minute summary on what you learned. Discussion: Colonialism as cognitive estrangement. H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure. Ed. Andrew Stauffer. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2006. *John Rieder. “The Colonial Gaze and the Frame of Science Fiction.” Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 2012. 14-39.. Black and White Comparisons: Pick out two similarities between Haggard and Hopkins’s novel. How does Hopkins transform Haggard’s colonial adventure story? Discussion: Afrofuturism and Colonialism. Workshop: Present your Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004. *Lisa Yaszek, “Afrofuturism in American Science Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction. Ed. Gerry Canavan and Eric Carl Link. Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2015. 58-69. Bring a complete draft of your final project to class. project to the class. Give at least 3 suggestions for improvement. Then and Now Anachronism: Find examples of how Butler discusses Black female subjectivity in Kindred. How do these align or dispute Christina Sharpe’s understanding of living in the wake of slavery? Text Engagement: History and Afrofuturism. Octavia Butler, Kindred. New York: Beacon Press, 2004. *Christina Sharpe. “The Wake.” In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Durham: Duke UP, 2016. 1-24. Exchange drafts with another student, read, and offer at least 10 suggestions that could make the project better. Final Week Final Projects Due. Course Values: Inclusion: Your success in this class is important to me. We will all need accommodations because we all learn differently. If there are aspects of this course that prevent you from learning or exclude you, please let me know as soon as possible. The sooner I know about these, the earlier we can discuss possible adjustments or alternative arrangements that might help you. If you have a documentable disability, please visit the Access Center (Washington Building 217; 509.335.3417) to schedule an appointment with an advisor. Collaboration and Reading: I see reading to be a collective project — not an individual one — that emphasizes inclusion, good faith, and comradery. I reject the vision of graduate education that separates, marginalizes, and intimidates various groups of students for the veneration of a few, who are usually white and male. As such, I do not expect any one of my students to read and know everything — in fact, I would be suspicious of a student who presented themselves in that way. Instead, we collectively construct the critical dimensions of our intervention into culture, literature, theory, and life. Your participation is essential in that process. University of Florida professor Philip Wegner encourages his students to form a dialogue with the readings in the course “being attentive to their respective voices, acknowledging their particular historical and otherwise contingent beings-in-the-world, and finally working to imagine how we today might best retool the insights and modes of analysis of their various ‘unfinished projects.’” Many of our readings will be progressive in some ways and regressive in others. I ask that, however possible, you bracket your initial emotional response to what you read and develop complex insights to the works we examine. Consider that your first encounter with these authors might not exhaust their power or importance to your education, and whether or not you like a particular work may have no relevance to its importance as a historical or ideological source of knowledge. Some of my favorite books were ones I didn’t like when I first read them. . Academic Honesty: Everyone in this class, including me, must abide by the standards of academic honesty set up by Washington State University. See that statement here: http://wsulibs.wsu.edu/library-instruction/plagiarism. I work hard to model appropriate academic citation. Please see me if you are unclear about any of these requirements. Email: I would rather talk to you in person than via email, since email depersonalizes the exchange and makes it easier for me to misinterpret what you mean. If emailing me is necessary, please allow me at least 24 hours to respond to your email inquiries. I try to respond in a timely manner, but I do not always check my email when not in town or on the weekends Safety: Washington State University is committed to enhancing the safety of the students, faculty, staff, and visitors. It is highly recommended that you review the Campus Safety Plan (http://safetyplan.wsu.edu/) and visit the Office of Emergency Management website (http://oem.wsu.edu/) for a comprehensive listing of university policies, procedures, statistics, and information related to campus safety, emergency management, and the health and welfare of the campus community. http://wsulibs.wsu.edu/library-instruction/plagiarism https://safetyplan.wsu.edu/ https://oem.wsu.edu/ Sources Readings: Jay Clayton. “19th-Century Science and Science Fiction.” Fall 2017: Vanderbilt U. Benjamin Morgan. “Victorian Speculative Fiction.” [warning: pdf]. Fall 2014: U of Chicago. Philip E. Wegner. LIT 6586: Bridging the Pernicious Chasm: Utopia, Dystopia, and Science Fiction.” Fall 2010: U of Florida. Policies and Design: John Aycock and Jim Uhl. “Choice in the Classroom.” ACM SIGCSE Bulletin. 37.4 (2005): 84- 88. Ashley Boyd. “ Young Adult Literature.” Fall 2015: Washington State U. Ashley Boyd. “Critical Theory, Literacy, and Pedagogy.” Fall 2016. Washington State U Anne-Marie Womack, Annelise Blanchard, Cassie Wang, Mary Catherine Jessee. Accessible Syllabus. Web. 3 August 2016. Anne-Marie Womack. First-Year Writing: Rhetoric and Research in the Digital Era. Spring 2014: Tulane. Philip E. Wegner. “ENG 6075. Literary Theory: Küntlerroman.” Fall 2011: U of Florida. https://vusf.wordpress.com/about/ http://v21collective.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Vict-Speculative-Fiction.doc http://users.clas.ufl.edu/pwegner/LIT6856F10syllabus.htm https://accessiblesyllabus.tulane.edu/ https://accessiblesyllabus.tulane.edu/ https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1113883 https://accessiblesyllabus.tulane.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/75/2015/11/Syllabus-After-1.jpg