Offering a new course, even a new kind of course, I have wanted to get to know you all a bit better before finalizing our syllabus. But you should have that version this coming week. As soon as it is ready, I will email you a copy, offer a link here to a pdf version, and include it in this website as well. Notice changes in office hours, social hours, and conversations with Irene on the right hand panel of this website too!
But until then here are this coming week's assignments, so you can prepare:
You should begin the biography of James Tiptree Jr by Phillips and start thinking about colonialisms, feminisms, and their twentieth century histories as offered through the life of Alice Sheldon. Colonialisms and feminisms are intwined with science fiction throughout the twentieth century and the materials we read today are both a reaction to this and a continuation of it in complicated ways. James Tiptree as a figure helps us understand this. And it is a fascinating biography just in itself! So just keep reading if you find yourself caught up in the story!
For Tuesday read Chs 1-13 (these are very very short chapters).
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Tuesday, 5 February – blond curls in a line of native porters: Belgian Congo 1921
• read Phillips: ch 1-13
You should begin the biography of James Tiptree Jr by Phillips and start thinking about colonialisms, feminisms, and their twentieth century histories as offered through the life of Alice Sheldon. Colonialisms and feminisms are entwined with science fiction throughout the twentieth century and the materials we read today are both a reaction to this and a continuation of it in complicated ways. James Tiptree as a figure helps us understand this. And it is a fascinating biography just in itself! So just keep reading if you find yourself caught up in the story!
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For Thursday, read Part 2 of the Hopkinson collection: a set of stories that attempt to critique, alter, shift, or replace the colonialisms of SF. What patterns, connections or interactions do you see between these?
For example, think of people real and fictional as they are marked by their childhoods, inside and around colonialisms, and of all the points of view and kinds of time they struggle to engage, and how all these enfold across transmedia and spacetimeworlds....
ENJOY!
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Thursday, 7 February – marked by an image in childhood: cultural productions
• Hopkinson’s section II: future Earth
• Butler: “Bloodchild” & afterword
The Hopkinson collection is a set of stories that attempt to critique, alter, shift, or replace the colonialisms of SF. What patterns, connections or interactions do you see between the biography of Tiptree and these stories? For example, think of people real and fictional as they are marked by their childhoods, inside and around colonialisms, and of all the points of view and kinds of time they struggle to engage, and how all these enfold across transmedia and spacetimeworlds.... "He dances, suddenly inspired, exuberant. Later he will understand what his father is doing, the rules he is breaking, the risks he is taking, and the price he will pay on a deserted road, when the siren goes off and the lights flash and they are pulled over...." (Terminal Avenue, p 69)
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