ENGL3401 · English
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
This is a course on the genre of literature known as "Science Fiction," "SF," or "scifi." Since this is a genre course, we will spend a bit of time discussing the definition of scifi, how there are many definitions that are not agreed upon, and what that tells us about the type of literature. We'll set the genre within the historical context of Enlightenment Rationalism and Romanticism's response to it, early nineteenth century Industrialism and the rise of machines. Class will consist of a bit of lecture followed mainly by discussions of the stories and books, within the terms set out above. We will read stories from Wells and Verne and novels from Asimov to Butler to see what scifi tells us about ourselves and where we are going. Three papers required plus a midterm and final.
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.3 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.5 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
3.8 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.1 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~3
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Fall 2024
1 sectionSummer 2023
1 sectionSummer 2022
1 sectionSummer 2021
1 sectionSummer 2020
1 section