ENGL 12034 - Fictions of Knowledge

Course Credit: 1
ENGL-12034 Fictions of Knowledge The word “science” comes from the Latin scientia, or “knowledge,” and science fiction is a genre preoccupied with the pleasures and perils of knowledge. Though the modern genre of science fiction developed in the nineteenth century, authors from the ancient world to the present day have interrogated the limits of human knowledge. This course will focus on speculative fiction and science fiction from the last century, but will also consider older narratives that raise questions still relevant today: What can we know about our world and ourselves? How best to classify, transmit, and use that knowledge? How much knowledge is too much? Readings will include novels, short stories, and critical essays by Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, Ted Chiang, Ursula Le Guin, Jonathan Swift, and others. English 120XX can be taken only once for departmental credit; students may take a second English 120XX for College credit only. [AH]

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