Week 1

Speculative and Science

Fiction

1
 What is Speculative Fiction?

❖ Narrative fiction that contains elements

that aren’t based on lived reality.
❖ Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror,
Superhero, Dystopia/Utopia,
Post/Apocalyptic, Time Travel, Alternate
History.
❖ What if….?

2
Examples of Well-Known Authors in the Western Canon

❖ J. R. R. Tolkien ❖ Kurt Vonnegut ❖ Brandon Sanderson

❖ Aldous Huxley ❖ Margaret Atwood ❖ NK Jemison
❖ Mary Shelley ❖ Douglas Adams ❖ Larry Niven
❖ Jules Verne ❖ Robert A. Heinlein ❖ Dan Simmons
❖ H. G. Wells ❖ Ursula K. LeGuin ❖ Philip K Dick
❖ George Orwell ❖ Octavia Butler ❖ Frank Herbert
❖ Isaac Asimov ❖ Orson Scott Card ❖ Stephen King
❖ Ray Bradbury ❖ Robert A. Jordan ❖ Arthur C. Clarke
 Common Subgenres

❖ Fantasy
❖ Science Fiction
❖ Superheros
❖ Horror
❖ Utopian/ Dystopian Fiction
❖ Apocalyptic/ Post-Apocalyptic
Science Fiction as the Literature of Cognitive Estrangement

❖ Darko Suvin
❖ Cognitive Estrangement
❖ Connection between reality and imaginary
worlds
❖ Use of a novum
❖ Difference between SciFi and other fiction
 SciFi, Colonialism, and Empire

❖ Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s

definitions of empire
❖ Empire and Utopia
❖ Sci Fi as a tool of exploration and
mediation between constructions of
empire, modernization, technology, global
capitalism, and the pluralism that is found
throughout multiple nation-states.
Galactic Empires in Science Fiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edR5o0wXYdg&ab_channel=BookOdyssey
Dune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd9L79koFkA