ENGL 294 - Topics in World Literature in English

FDR: HL
Credits: (3 credits in fall and winter, 3-4 credits in spring)

Prerequisite: Completion of the FW requirement. World literature, taught in English, supported by attention to historical and cultural contexts. Versions of this course may survey several periods or concentrate on a group of works from a short span of time or focus on a cultural phenomenon. Students develop their analytical writing skills through both short papers and a final multisource research paper. May be repeated for degree credit and for the major if the topics are different.

Spring 2022, ENGL 294-01: Topics in World Literature in English: World of Tomorrow (3). The future can incite both anticipation and dread. While political and entrepreneurial leaders often speak of the future with excitement and possibility, many literary authors have represented the future less optimistically, especially in dystopian narratives. This class explores the contrasts between those discourses. Authors may include Ted Chiang, Simon Jimenez, Octavia Butler, Kazuo Ishiguro, and N.K. Jemisin, and course topics may cover climate disaster, capitalism, artificial intelligence, technology, the space race, Afro and Indigenous futurisms, and apocalypses. (HL) Kharputly.