Arts, Sciences, and Engineering English
Course Section Listing Course Course Title Term Credits Status
COURSE_SECTION-3-125896 ENGL 125-1 Speculative Fiction Spring 2022 4.0 - 0.0 Closed
Schedule:
Day Begin End Location Start Date End Date
W 200 PM 440 PM Morey Room 403
Enrollment: Enrolled     
13
Capacity     
13
Instructors: Sarah Higley
Restrictions: Instructor Permission
Description: This is a creative writing course that focuses on "Speculative Fiction," the early term given to what we call "science fiction" because it speculated about the future. I use it here very loosely to mean any fiction that takes for its subject something fantastic or whimsical, whether its setting is contemporary, historical, futuristic, or alternative. Actually, science fiction falls under the very large umbrella of "Fantasy," which used to dominate creative writings before the introduction of the "novel." This course is not, per se, a course on "genre" literature--a term I loathe because even "literary" or "mainstream" fiction has "genres." I am interested in leading you to write short fiction that straddles conventional generic boundaries, such as the work of Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Jonathan Lethem and China Mieville, leader of the "New Weird." 

This class requires permission of the instructor. Please provide the instructor (sarah.higley@rochester.edu) a short sample of your best creative writing and a short explanation of what this course will fulfill for you academically and/or personally.

Offered: Fall Spring Summer