Course Information
In the speculative genre’s frequent explorations of time, space, and alternative worlds, the discussion of race is often omitted from its purview. Yet the speculative has always been a productive space for critical social commentary, for illuminating difference while also projecting ideas for and anxieties about the future. This course will consider what it means to highlight race across the reading of speculative film, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. From the historical erasure of zombie origins born from colonial violence in Haiti to the globalized pidgin spoken by a tour guide still reconciling the aftermaths of the Gwangju Uprising, we will look at a range of texts by artists of color whose sense of world building remind readers that social issues do not exist in a political vacuum and that race is always central to the discussion.
This hybrid literature seminar and workshop combines critical discussion with multimedia creative writing that is open to students of all creative disciplines. As speculative work demands that we examine the lines we draw across genres and forms, so will the nature of this class in its production of multimedia writing and discourse.
Course Questions
- What can speculative writing do for poetry, fiction and other hybrid genre work in its exploration of race?
- How can the study and creation of speculative literature work towards an anti-racist objective? What does this study and creation necessitate? How do we deepen our understanding?
- What does working in the speculative vein teach us about the genre’s presumptions and its limits?
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- Introduction Muriel Leung