Course description:
This seminar explores the roots of science fiction in early modern literature, focusing on how writers from 1500 to 1800 imagined other worlds, new technologies, and altered human societies. Long before science fiction became a recognized genre, early modern authors speculated about lunar travel, artificial life, utopian societies, and the transformation of nature through science. We will examine how these texts engage with scientific discoveries, political upheavals, and philosophical debates of their time. Readings will include canonical and lesser-known works, ranging from Renaissance utopias and cosmographies to Enlightenment satires and proto-feminist fictions. We will consider how early modern science fiction negotiates themes of gender, empire, race, and the limits of human knowledge, and how it anticipates or complicates later developments in speculative fiction. The course concludes by reflecting on the usefulness of reading these texts as ‘science fiction’, and the historical boundaries of the genre.
Content warnings:
This course includes texts from the early modern period (1500-1800) which contain representations or language that reflect sexist, racist, colonial, and ableist ideologies, including at times dehumanising depictions. These elements are part of the historical context we will critically examine, though they are mostly background to the texts we are covering. Specific content warnings for individual texts will be provided in advance where the issues are more directly addressed.
If you feel you may need an alternative way to engage with a specific type of content, then you’re welcome to speak with me directly. I will then try to make adjustments by, for example, paraphrasing or summarising the passages so that individuals can be forewarned, but, if possible, I would prefer this paraphrasing be used as a stepping stone to engaging with the material gently, rather than as a substitute. It will also not be possible to completely avoid discussion of this content in class, and so students should be aware of and prepared for this before taking this course.
- Enseignant·e: Honor Jackson