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. |