TOPIAS: Science Fiction and the Spatial
Politics of the Future
RCID 813 001 (Spring 2009)
5:00-7:45T PM 409 DANL
This graduate seminar in the RCID PhD Program at Clemson University will
explore varieties of the utopian (dystopian, heterotopian) tradition in 20th-
century science fiction novels through various theoretical lenses, including
feminist, Marxist, semiotic, ecocritical, and space/place approaches. Science
fiction authors range from Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Philip K. Dick, Ursula K.
LeGuin, Marge Piercy, William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling
and Octavia Butler. Theorists include, Heidegger, Foucault, Lefevbre,
DeCerteau, Fredric Jameson, and Donna Haraway. Depending on class
interest, some films may also be included. Assignments: weekly blogs , plus
critical reviews, plus research project (literary critical to multi-media).
Prof: Dr. Elisa K. Sparks