Speculative Fiction: Afrofuturism, Gothic Horror, and the Weird
In this course, students will study major works of speculative fiction from France, Argentina, Italy, Mexico and Brazil (in English translation). The course starts with a French example of what has been dubbed “weird fiction”, namely Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Horla” (1886) in which fact and fiction are difficult to distinguish. Students will then be introduced to Jorge Luis Borges’ reflections on infinity, non-linearity, and the labyrinth in his famous short stories “The Garden of Forking Paths” (1941) and “The Library of Babel” (1941). Turning to the fantasy novel, we will also read Italo Calvino’s The Nonexistent Knight (1959) which parodies medieval romance and chivalry. The Brazilian movie Executive Order (2020) represents a dystopian country where all African descendants are ordered to “return” to Africa. The course will end with the horror novel Mexican Gothic (2020) by Vancouver-based Mexican-Canadian writer Silvia Moreno-Garcia about a young woman who investigates the strange events at a mansion in the remote Mexican countryside. Discussion of these masterpieces of speculative fiction will be informed by readings of non-fiction that deal with intertextuality, historiographic metafiction, psychoanalysis, and biopolitics. Language of instruction is English.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Antje Ziethen
Prerequisites: No prerequisites
In-class Participation 15%
Presentation 5%
CLAS (Collective Annotation Online) 20%
2 Exams 40%
Final Paper 20%
Bookstore or E-Book:
- Italo Calvino, The Nonexistent Knight ISBN 9780544959101 0544959108
- Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic ISBN 978-0525620785 0525620788
Canvas:
- Guy de Maupassant “The Horla”
- Jorge Luis Borges “The Garden of Forking Paths” and “The Library of Babel”
- Lazaro Ramos, Executive Order (movie)
- Non-Fictional Readings