Proseminar Contemporary Dystopias

The term dystopia has long permeated popular culture. Works like 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 are not only frequently referred to when talking about fictional texts, but also when describing current societal, economic and ecological processes. This seminar, however, will completely omit dystopian texts that were written before the nineties; instead we will focus on how the genre has evolved over the past 25 years and will try to identify the current thematic underpinnings of the genre. In this endeavor, Atwood’s half pre-, half post-apocalyptic Oryx and Crake with its prevalent topics of ecological catastrophe and dangers of bioengineering will be the first novel we will discuss in class. Our second text,The Children of Men by P.D. James, envisions the societal mechanisms that occur when humanity is faced with mass infertility. Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey is a comedic, yet thrilling, oddball dystopia centering on the idea that a society might as well be organized according to the color perception of its members. The final novel to be discussed in class is Dashner’s The Maze Runner, which combines dystopian traits with Young Adult fiction. After establishing the theoretical framework for the discussion of the genre, our primary objective will be to evaluate if and how these four novels are dystopian. Over the course of the seminar students will learn how to do close reading, how to work with genre theory and how to approach a text from various perspectives of literary criticism, including, but not limited to, structuralism, feminist theory and ecocriticism. Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake. P.D. James. The Children of Men. Jasper Fforde. Shades of Grey. James Dashner. The Maze Runner. Voraussetzungen All interested students must have completed the Orientierungskurs -Introduction to English and American History and Literature-. Prior to the first session, students must have read Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. If there are more than 25 students, there will be a quiz on the novel. It is mandatory that you attend the first session, no exceptions. Leistungsnachweis In order to receive credit for this course, students are required to participate regularly and actively and contribute to the class by means of a short oral presentation. Term papers ca. 10-15 pages, depending on your MPO. FB 02 Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik All interested students must have completed the Orientierungskurs -Introduction to English and American History and Literature-. Prior to the first session, students must have read Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. If there are more than 25 students, there will be a quiz on the novel. It is mandatory that you attend the first session, no exceptions. In order to receive credit for this course, students are required to participate regularly and actively and contribute to the class by means of a short oral presentation. Term papers ca. 10-15 pages, depending on your MPO. Uni Kassel WiSe 2014/15 Anglistik/Englisch Mutschler Franz