Instructor: Reed
MWF 11:15 AM – 12:10 PM
In this course, we will explore dystopian climate fiction in a global context, considering a diverse array of authors from the United States, Canada, South Korea, Egypt, Australia, and the Dominican Republic. Dystopian texts seem ubiquitous in contemporary culture, especially given the social, political, ecological, and pandemic-related upheaval of the last few years. But while dystopian literature often reflects anxiety over a rapidly changing world and fear about an uncertain future, our class will investigate this genre for its vast potential to convey intersectional human experience. We will achieve this by reading texts that focus on a variety of racial, sexual, socioeconomic, religious, and ethnic identities, all while situating climate change dystopia within its interlocking subgenres: sociopolitical, technological, and plague dystopias. In doing so, this course will ask: How does writing about the future of climate change affect our interactions with our current environment? How does reading dystopian literature in a global context shape our understanding of the disparate impacts of climate change on a variety of populations? In what ways do sexuality, race, gender, and class affect how we interact with, conceive of, and write about our various environments?