LIT3313 - Spring 2025 - Ballard

This course will trace the relationship between speculative fiction and environmental thought, focusing on fiction and film since WWII, and starting from the central premise that speculation and ecology are tightly entwined. We will take up different fantasies and fears about environmental futures, some fictional, some not. We will explore how speculative fiction imagines the more-than-human entities, experiences, and systems that motivate ecological thought. We will investigate the leverage speculative fiction offers onto the intersection of social, technological, and environmental issues which is at the heart of environmental justice. We will consider the force that different ideas about “nature” and “the natural” exert on the social. And we will contemplate how speculative fiction might help us to imagine better worlds in the context of contemporary ecological crisis. Students can expect to read broadly as well as deeply, to reflect on their own values and assumptions, and to engage both critically and creatively with the core science fictional and ecological practice of speculation. Key authors to include Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Jeff VanderMeer, and N.K. Jemisin.