Course Schedule:

Week 1

Tues, 01/22:

Introductions and Course Overview

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak—“Can the Subaltern Speak?,” Pts. I-II in Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, pp. 66-86

Guillermo Goméz-Peña—Dangerous Border Crossers, Pt. II, “Migrant Provocateurs,” pp. 82-132

Thurs, 01/24:

Maurice Blanchot—“The Proper Use of Science Fiction,” in Imagining the Future: Utopia and Dystopia, Andrew Milner, et. al., Ed., pp. 375-383

Goméz-Peña—Crossers, Pt. III, “Conversations across the Border Fence,” pp. 133-173 (Optional)

Dorothy Smith—“Women’s Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology,” in Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 44, No. 1 (1974), pp. 7-13

Spivak—“Subaltern,” pp. 86-104

Week 2

Tues, 01/29:

Ray Bradbury—“There Will Come Soft Rains”

Barry Brummett—Rhetoric of Machine Aesthetics, Ch. 2: “Aesthetics, Machines, and Rhetoric,” pp. 1-28 (Optional)

Luisa Hall—“How We Feel About Robots That Feel,” MIT Technology Review, 10/24/2017

Martin Heidegger—“The Question Concerning Technology,” in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, pp. 3-19

*Take-home Reading Quiz #1 due in class

Thurs, 01/31:

George Anders—“Alexa, Understand Me[!],” MIT Technology Review, Vol. 120, No. 5, pp. 26-31

Brummett—Rhetoric, Ch. 3: “Electrotech: High Technology Machine Aesthetics,” pp. 56-88 (Optional)

Steven Connor—“Psychotechnographies,” Ch. 1, Dream Machines, pp. 7-24

Heidegger—Cont. “Question,” pp. 20-35

Rachel Metz—“Growing Up with Alexa,” MIT Technology Review, Vol. 120, No. 5, pp. 70-74

*Paper #1: One-page Prospectus due in class

Week 3

Tues, 02/05:

Jean Baudrillard—The System of Objects, Pt. C: “The Metafunctional and Dysfunctional System:* Gadgets and Robots,” pp. 107-118

Karel Čapek—“Rossums Universal Robots,” Introductory Scene and Act One

*Take-home Reading Quiz #2 due in class

*Paper #1 Prospectus annotated and returned in class

Thurs, 02/07:

Baudrillard—“Gadgets and Robots,” pp. 119-133

Čapek—“Robots,” Act Two

Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.—“The SF of Theory: Baudrillard and Haraway,” in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3 (1991), pp. 387-404 (Optional)

Week 4

Tues, 02/12:

Čapek—“Rossum’s Universal Robots,” Act Three

Donna Haraway—A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, Chs. 1-2, pp. 5-27

*Take-home Reading Quiz #3 due in class

*Paper #1 Draft due 2:50pm, Turnitin.com

Thurs, 02/14:

Asimov—“Reason,” in I Robot

Haraway—Manifesto, Chs. 3-4, pp. 28-44

Week 5

Tues, 02/19:

Asimov—“Escape!,” in I Robot

David Byrne—“Eliminating the Human”

Haraway—Manifesto, Chs. 5-6, pp. 45-68

*Take-home Reading Quiz #4 due in class

*Paper #1 Draft annotated and returned in class

Thurs, 02/21:

Ray Bradbury—The Illustrated Man, “Prologue: The Illustrated Man” and “The Veldt,” pp. 1-19

Aliette De Bodard—“Immersion,” @aliettedebodard.com

Week 6

Tues, 02/26:

Nicholas Barber—“Why 2001: A Space Odyssey Remains a Mystery,” BBC Culture, 04/04/2018

Bruce Kapferer—2001 and Counting: Kubrick, Nietzsche, and Anthropology, Intro. and Ch. 1: “The Social and Political Context and Intellectual Themes,” pp. i-31

Film—2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Dir. Stanley Kubrick

*Take-home Reading Quiz #5 due in class

*Paper #1 Revision due 2:50pm, Turnitin.com

Thurs, 02/28:

Julie Carpenter—Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces, Ch. 3: “Our Emotional Engines,” pp. 33-40

Kapferer—2001 and Counting, Ch. 3: “A Space Odyssey and Beyond,” pp. 93-107

Film—Kubrick—2001 (Continue)

Week 7

Tues, 03/05:

Carpenter—Culture, Ch. 5: “Robot Design as Rhetoric,” pp. 50-62

Connor—“Shutdown,” Ch. 9, Dream Machines, pp. 186-188

Film—Kubrick—2001 (Finish)

*Take-home Reading Quiz #6 due in class

*Paper #1 Revision graded and returned in class

Thurs, 03/07:

Silvana Caporaletti—“Science as Nightmare: ‘The Machine Stops,’ by E.M. Forster,” in Utopian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1997), pp. 32-47

E.M. Forster—“The Machine Stops,” Ch. 1: “The Air-ship,” pp. 3-13

*Paper #2 Prospectus due in class

Week 8

Tues, 03/12:

Forster—“The Machine Stops,” Ch. 2: “The Mending Apparatus,” pp. 14-23

Take-home Reading Quiz #7 due in class

Paper #2 Prospectus annotated and returned in class

Thurs, 03/14:

Forster—“The Machine Stops,” Ch. 3: “The Homeless,” pp. 24-32

*Paper #2 Draft due 2:50pm, Turnitin.com

*Spring Break: Sat, 03/16 - Sun, 03/24

Week 9

Tues, 03/26:

Heidegger—“The Turning,” pp. 36-49, in Question

Ernest Hogan—“Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song,” in Alien Contact

*Take-home Reading Quiz #8 due in class

*Paper #2 Draft annotated and returned in class

Thurs, 03/28:

Hogan—“Guerrilla” (Finish)

Week 10

Tues, 04/02:

Film—The Matrix (1999), Dir. Lana and Lilly Wachowski

Jean Baudrillard—Simulacra and Simulation, Ch. 13: “Simulacra and Science Fiction”

*Take-home Reading Quiz #9 due in class

*Paper #2 Revision Due 2:50pm, Turnitin.com

Thurs, 04/04:

Baudrillard—Simulacra and Simulation, Ch. 11: “Holograms”

Joshua Raulerson—“Cracking the Code,” Ch. 7, Technoculture, Transhumanism, and Science Fiction in the 21st Century (Optional)

Film—Wachowski, Dirs.—The Matrix (Finish)

*Take-home Reading Quiz #10 due in class

Week 11

Tues, 04/09:

Raulerson—“Mind, Matter, and Markets,” Ch. 3, Technoculture

Rudy Rucker—Postsingular, Part I, pp. 5-51

*Paper #2 Revision graded and returned in class

Thurs, 04/11:

Rudy Rucker—Postsingular, Part II, pp. 52-91

Gilbert Simondon—“The Genesis of Technicity,” Pt. III, Preface, and Ch. 1, On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects, pp. 167-190

*Paper #3 Prospectus due in class

Week 12

Tues, 04/16:

Rudy Rucker—Postsingular, Part III, pp. 92-144

Simondon—“The Relation between Technical Thought and Other Species of Thought,” Pt. III, Ch. 3, Mode, pp. 191-222

*Paper #3 Prospectus annotated and returned in class

Thurs, 04/18:

Rudy Rucker—Postsingular, Part IV, pp. 145-179

Week 13

Tues, 04/23:

Octavia E. Butler—Parable of the Sower, Chs. 1-8

*Paper #3 Draft due 2:50pm, Turnitin.com

Thurs, 04/25:

Butler—Parable, Chs. 9-16

Ingrid Thaler—“Dystopian Future and Utopian Vision,” Ch. 3, Black Atlantic and Speculative Fictions (Optional)

Week 14

Tues, 04/30:

Butler—Parable, Chs. 17-25

Paper #3 Draft annotated and returned in class

Thurs, 05/02:

Butler—“Speech Sounds”

Week 15

Tues, 05/07:

Film—Ghost in the Shell (1995), Dir. Mamoru Oshii

*Paper #3 Revision due 2:50pm, Turnitin.com

Thurs, 05/09:

Film—Ghost (1995) (Finish)

Course review, reflections, and SOOTs

*Paper #3 Revision graded and returned in class

Finals Week:

Thurs, 05/16:

Final Paper due 4:30pm, Turnitin.com

Download Complete Syllabus