Assignments

Critical Essay & Question Presentation -- You will be a required to sign up for an oral presentation during the course of the quarter. For your presentation, you will read the texts assigned for a particular week, research a scholarly essay relevant to the texts and course, distribute the essay to the class the week prior, generate a critical question or two, and get the class discussion started for the day. A short single-spaced half-sheet or 1-page handout copied for the whole class is encouraged. Presentations are 8-10 minutes, may include media, and each presenter must have a speaking part.

Creative Responses -- Not only will you be reading speculative and science fictions of color, you will create your own art via creative writing, drawing, and other media to repurpose and demonstrate the ideas, goals, and critiques of the literatures of the course. Over the course of the quarter, you will write poetry, a short-short story, and generate a drawing. These creative responses will be evaluated on completion and your critical, thoughtful engagement with the prompt.

Imagining the Oankali -- For this exercise, draw or create a one-page visual representation (8.5" x 11") of what you imagine Octavia Butler’s Dawn’s "Oankali" to look like, be like, act like, live like. How do you represent or convey something conveyed only through words, inferences, and expectations? You can hand draw, use mixed media (but keep it flat), use digital tools. Be creative and think critically. Given that one of the central tensions in Dawn is a decentering of the "human," consider what it means to try to represent something alien, monstrous, different, nonhuman, posthuman, even inhuman. We will collect your representations and scan them for the class blog. Short Short Fiction -- According to Wikipedia, short short fiction contains "the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, obstacles or complications, and resolution. However, unlike the case with a traditional short story, the limited word length often forces some of these elements to remain unwritten, that is, hinted at or implied in the written storyline. For this exercise, you will think about all of the speculative and science fiction we have read so far in class as inspiration for your own short short story. You have up to 500 words (only) to develop setting, character, plot, and purpose. What will your story be about? Who will your story be about? How will you build a science fictional world? Choose your words wisely.

Project Proposal -- As part of your Final Project research and writing process, you must generate a 1-page research proposal in business memo format. You will also arrange for a conference with me to go over your proposal. Your proposal and conference must be completed at least 3 weeks prior to the end of the quarter.

Final Project -- At the end of the quarter, you will complete a final project integrating what you have read and explored with additional research, that draws on specific terms, concepts, or issues from the class, and that articulates the critical value of speculative and science fictions of color. The project asks you to make connections and to create an argument across different kinds of evidence. Your final project can be a traditional research paper, a media production (which includes a substantive analytical component), or a hybrid of the two.

Speculative & Science Fictions of Color Critical Review -- a 500-600 word analytical review of a text you would think could be or should be included in our class. You must have your text approved by the instructor before completing the assignment. Critical Reviews are due by the last day of instruction and will be posted to the class blog.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

Ed's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Ed's Top Ten Rules of Writing

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

What is Close Reading?

Readings

Course texts are available via the UO Duck Store (or through any reputable bookseller). Course readers are available only via the Duck Store or Campus Copy. The required texts for this class are:

WGS 410/510 Course Reader (Winter 2017). Hopkins, Pauline. Of One Blood. Schuyler, George. Black No More. Butler, Octavia. Dawn. Lai, Larissa. Salt Fish Girl. Yang & Liew, The Shadow Hero.

Consult the course syllabus for each week's required reading. The following is a full bibliographical list of the class readings:

Alexie, Sherman. "Distances." The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Grove Press, 2005. 104-109. Bailey, Moya. "The Power of Octavia Butler's Black Feminist and Womanist." Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology. 3 (2013). http://adanewmedia.org/2013/11/issue3-baileybrown/. Bell, Derrick. "The Space Traders." Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas. New York: Aspect, 2000. 326-355. Bisson, Terry. "'Correcting the Balance': Outspoken Interview with Nalo Hopkinson." Report from Planet Midnight. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2012. 71-102. Butler, Octavia. Dawn. New York: Aspect, 1987. ---. "The Monophobic Response." Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas. New York: Aspect, 2000. 415-416. Chiang, Ted. "Story of Your Life." Stories of Your Life and Others. New York: Vintage, 2002. 91-146. Delany, Samuel. "Aye, and Gomorrah..." Aye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories. New York: Vintage, 1991. 91-101. ---. "Racism and Science Fiction." Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas. New York: Aspect, 2000. 383-397. ---. "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones." Aye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories. New York: Vintage, 1991. 218-259. Diaz, Junot. "Monstro." The New Yorker. (June 2012): 106-118. Du Bois, W.E.B. "The Comet." Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas. New York: Aspect, 2000. 5-18. ---. "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover, 1994. 1-7. Ferguson, Robert A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 191-196. Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 116-120. Hopkins, Pauline. Of One Blood. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004. Huang, Betsy. "Reorientations: On Asian American Science Fiction." Contesting Genres in Contemporary Asian American Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 95-140. Kim, Alice Sola. "Beautiful White Bodies." Strange Horizons. 7 Dec. 2009. 19 Jan. 2015. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20091207/bodies-f.shtml. Web. Lai, Larissa. Salt Fish Girl. Toronto, ON: Thomas Allen, 2002. Liu, Ken. "The Paper Menagerie." The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. New York: Saga Press, 2016. 178-191. London, Jack. "The Unparalleled Invasion." The Jack London Online Collection. 19 Jan. 2015. http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/StrengthStrong/invasion.html. Web. Lothian, Alexis. "Introduction: Science Fiction and the Feminist Present." Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology. 3 (2013). http://adanewmedia.org/2013/11/issue3-lothian. Mosley, Walter. "Black to the Future." Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas. New York: Aspect, 2000. 405-407. Obeso, Dionne. "Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014: How Multicultural Is Your Multiverse?" Publishers Weekly. 3 Oct. 2014. 19 Jan. 2015. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/64261-science-fiction-fantasy-2014-how-multicultural-is-your-multiverse.html. Web. Raymond, Alex. Flash Gordon: On the Planet Mongo: The Complete Flash Gordon Library 1934-37. London: Titan Books, 2012. Schuyler, George S. Black No More. New York: The Modern Library, 1999. Shawl, Nisi. "Maggies." Filter House. Seattle: Aqueduct Press, 2008. 93-115. Singh, Vandana. "Occasional Writer: An Interview with Science Fiction Author Ted Chiang." Asian American Writers' Workshop. 3 Oct. 2012. 19 Jan. 2015. http://aaww.org/the-occasional-writer-an-interview-with-science-fiction-author-ted-chiang/. Web. Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 187-191. Somtow, S.P. "The Thirteenth Utopia." Analog. 99.4 (April 1979): 144-160. Thomas, Sheree R. "Introduction: Looking for the Invisible." Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas. New York: Aspect, 2000. ix-xiv. Yang, Gene Luen and Sonny Liew. The Shadow Hero. New York: First Second, 2014. Media Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Warner Bros., 1982. DVD. "Errand of Mercy." Star Trek Original Series (Remastered). Season 1, Episode 26. CBS, 1966. http://amzn.com/B005HEEDVG. Digital. Robot Stories. Dir. Greg Pak. Pak Film, 2003. DVD. "The Silent Gun." The Green Hornet. 20th Century Fox Television, 1966. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGlb1eHTeUU. Web.

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