|
LECTURE OUTLINES
|
|
LECTURE OUTLINES Lecture 1
Issues of Genre 1.1
We shall first examine imaginative
writing in the narrative form for the features that create a partial
overlap between, speculative fiction, science fiction and fantasy. 1.2
Then, we shall discuss the ways in which
they differ. 1.3
That entails clarifying our notions
about the relation of imaginative writing to realism as a narrative mode,
and of the ways in which the conventions of realist fiction are made to
accommodate elements of fantasy, fable, myth, legend, allegory, and
science. 1.4
Science itself will then be described as
a set of explanatory models of life and the universe. The relation of sf
to science will be addressed in terms of fictive extrapolations from the
notion of scientific knowledge current at a given time toward a direction
stretching from the probable, through the possible, to the
conceivable-but-impossible worlds postulated by various kinds of sf. 1.5
Sf will be described as all the forms of
narrative which extrapolate from known reality, while retaining most of
the conventions of realist fiction, but applied to worlds variously
alternative to our own. 1.6
The alternative worlds of sf —
alternate, parallel, and interactive — will be described in terms of
extrapolated Life-worlds, Life-forms, and Technologies.
1.7
The set texts for the module will be mapped in terms of this
analytic scheme.
Lecture 2
Tolkien, Lord of the Rings 2.1
We shall examine the language and style used by Tolkien for
his narrative. 2.2
We shall then consider the many ways of relating his
narrative to History in its chosen mode of quasi-history.
2.3
We shall briefly consider the relation of the set text to Tolkien's
other writings. 2.4
We shall then describe the structure of the text as based on the
archetype of the quest, which is here treated, paradoxically, as an
anti-quest.
2.6
Correspondingly, the protagonist of the quest as anti-quest will be
analyzed in terms of Northrop Frye’s suggestion
that “Fictions … may be classified
… by the hero’s power of action, which may be greater than
ours, less, or roughly the same” (Anatomy of Criticism, 1957: 33).
Lecture 3
Sf: the outer and inner realms Robert
Frost’s poem on inner and outer weather will provide the starting point
for a discussion of the dual relation of analogy and contrast between the
treatment of mental or psychic realities in sf, and external
extrapolations of space, technologies, typologies, and histories. Lecture 4
Lem, Solaris Lecture
five will treat the Lem novel as a form of riddle or conundrum, and
examine the appeal of sf as a form of cautionary tale. Lecture 5
Sf and Forms of Conflict Lecture
three will adopt a comparative approach to the Tolkien and Herbert texts,
suggesting a method of analysis that focuses on the nature of the conflict
around which the text is organized.
Lecture
six will discuss Herbert’s text primarily in terms of how its
elaborately baroque structure sets up an interaction between a unique
ecology and a correspondingly unique religious ideology. Lecture
7 Sf and
mythology This
lecture will examine some of the typologies that result from the use of
mythological archetypes in sf. Lecture 8
Zelazny, Lord of Light Lecture eight
will treat the Zelazny novel as a form of mythopoeic narrative. We will
examine the issue of how and why sf writers deal with characters endowed
with various kinds of “superpowers”, and what that enables them to do
in terms of the conflicts to which these powers are applied. Lecture
9
Gender, feminism & sf Lecture
nine will introduce some of the central concerns that have preoccupied
women writers in the last century, and attempt to relate these to the
preoccupations characteristic to sf writing. Lecture 10
Russ, The Female Man Lecture ten will address the claim that The
Female Man represents a breakthrough of special import to the
symbiotic relation between feminism and sf in its dramatization of issues
concerning social organization in its multiple alternative worlds. Lecture
11
Card, Ender’s Game
This
lecture will approach Card’s novel, and the trilogy to which it belongs,
in terms of its combination of the conventions of “space opera” with
the ethics of mind-control and selective-breeding. Lecture
12
Butler, Parable of the Sower
The
final lecture will account for Butler’s unique contribution to sf in
terms of how issues of economics, oppression, and race are implicated in
issues of gender, and brought to bear on transforming and enlarging the
scope of sf as a narrative genre through its politicization of action and
commitment in the protagonist and her role in the novel. |
|
Last Updated 17 August 2000 |
