3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Contemporary literary depictions of apocalypse often offer up a world that’s been transformed (rather than annihilated) by climate change, disease, and war. In this course, students will explore comparatively optimistic literary dystopias with an eye toward understanding how writers observe and extrapolate real dangers to inform their novels and stories. We’ll read one classic dystopian work alongside newer stories and novels by Kazuo Ishiguro, Lauren Groff, Colson Whitehead, Rumaan Alam, Emily St. John Mandel, Ted Chiang, Ling Ma, Laura van den Berg, and more. Students will write short creative and critical responses to our readings as well as a final comparative paper.