IMF 51608 Fiction: Utopian & Dystopian Speculative Fiction L

Instructor

Gene Pfeiffer

Class Type

Literature

Course Description

In this course we will explore speculative dystopian and utopian fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction and the edges between. We’ll go back to the origins of the term utopia, and quickly travel 500 years of utopian and dystopian literature to reach what’s being written today in the 21st century.

We’ll talk about genre definitions and parameters from a literary point of view, popular culture point of view, and marketing point of view. We will study recent speculative fiction that envisions a darker future along with speculative fiction that works to make a better world.

We will read stories by authors such as Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, Emily St. John Mandel, Octavia Butler, Orson Scott Card, and Elizabeth Bear. In our journal work, we will write some dystopian, utopian and post-apocalyptic flash fiction of our own and workshop it in the final weeks.