©All the material in this website is copyrighted to Kathleen L. Fowler unless explicitly indicated otherwise.  Permission is granted to use and distribute this material freely so long as you attribute properly by retaining the full header information.  11/16/99
Page last updated May 1, 2003

Class: Mon., 6:30-9:00    Classroom:  G200     Office: DBS, E-222
Office Phone/Voice Mail: 684-7565    email: kfowler@ramapo.edu    webpage:  http://orion.ramapo.edu/~kfowler
Office hrs: Mon. 4:30-6:00 p.m. Other hours by appointment.

Take-home midterm: due Mar. 31    Butler Reading Questions

Interdisciplinary Studies SINT 34601: "Survey of Science Fiction."  (SCP credit/Writing Intensive WI)

From "proto-science fiction writers" of the renaissance and 18th century through the evolution of science fiction in the 19th century with Shelley, Poe, Cridge, Verne, Wells, etc. to the development of science fiction as a popular genre for readers and for writers in the early decades of the twentieth century to the explosion of science fiction from the 1950's to the present -- the course will examine science fiction writers' world views and critiques of human nature and society and their use of such scientific and pseudoscientific concepts as entropy, social Darwinism, quantum mechanics, genetic engineering, relativity, etc. Use will be made of novels, short stories from around the world, films, radio drama, and related materials. The course will be concerned with a series of recurrent themes:

Future Visions (Utopias/Dystopias/Heterotopias); Creation/Transformation/Sentience;
Time; Space; Social Issues:  Gender/Race/Age/Disability/Species; Ocean; and Math/Dimensions/Computers/Cyberspace.

Recommended prerequisites: a science course and a literature course.

Required Texts:
James Gunn, ed. Road to Science Fiction, Vol. 6:  Around the World, Clarkston, Ga: White Wolf, 1998.
Garyn Roberts, ed. Prentice Hall Anthology of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818 (Note be careful not to be fooled by the recent novelization of the movie called Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which is not, in fact, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley!)
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, 1895.
Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End, 1953.
Samuel K. Delany, Babel-17, 1966,
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969.
Octavia Butler, Dawn, 1987

Student Responsibilities:

1) Reading Schedule

This course is a 300 level course. It will require a considerable amount of reading: 6 novels and a number of shorter science fiction pieces from one of the two texts for the class (James Gunn, ed. Road to Science Fiction, Vol. 6:  Around the World  and Garyn Roberts, ed. Prentice Hall Anthology of Fantasy and Science Fiction) A few additional readings will be on handouts or on reserve.   I will, every week, suggest additional readings as optional for those who want to delve even further either now or later.  All the works are fun to read, challenging to think about, and exciting to engage with. Still -- they must be read and they do take time. If you are not willing to read, this is not the appropriate course to take! It is essential to keep ahead of the assigned readings.  BE FOREWARNED! WHEN THEY'RE DUE, THEY'RE DUE.

You will be submitting a reading log (see response journal below) each class and be expected to participate in class discussion fully. The collective reading log entries(14 in all) will be worth 45% of the course grade and failure to submit the reading log on time each week will damage that grade. You are allowed one missing log gratis in recognition of human emergencies.

We will also be viewing two full-length films in class (Gattaca and The Day the Earth Stood Still) and a number of short clips from films and television science fiction pieces. Don't miss class! You will be viewing the full-length film, Blade Runner, on your own outside of class. The movie is available in Ramapo's library and also readily available for rental at most video stores.

To help you engage closely with the texts and to be prepared for lively discussions in class, I will be quizzing regularly. The quizzes will not be difficult if you have done the assigned reading. Your quiz grades up to the midterm will represent 20% of your total grade for the midterm; your quizzes for the second half of the semester will represent 20% of the grade on the final exam.

2) Attendance

More than two absences may result in a lowered grade for the course.
On the other hand, anyone who misses no more than one class will earn an extra A.

Leaving early, coming late, or leaving class and returning, damage your learning and cause distractions to other students who are trying to learn. You will be marked 1/2 absence for tardiness over ten minutes or leaving before the class is over. If you are late even by a few minutes you are to take your seat quietly near the door in order to minimize disruption.

Plagiarism and Cheating

Don't! Plagiarism and cheating are the theft of another's words or ideas and can result in penalties as serious as expulsion from the college.  See the Student Handbook for guidelines on plagiarism and cheating. If you have any doubts about how to present material from other sources, please come see me for help. If I find a paper which I believe has been plagiarized I will forward it to the Vice President's Office for action.

3) Response Journal:

Because of the heavy reading load, I am not asking you to also do a traditional research paper for this class.  However this is a writing intensive course (which satisfies one of the Writing Across the Curriculum requirements) so I am requiring you to respond on a regular basis to the readings we are doing and to the films we are viewing in class. The response journal, which will be worth collectively 45% of the course grade (almost half!) should be taken seriously as a way of exploring the works, addressing questions raised by the works, and of preparing for the exams. They are not to be simple emotional reactions: "I really liked this book. This story was confusing and boring. I didn't understand it. It was too long." Nor are they to be just plot summaries. They should be analytical, thoughtful, and insightful -- considering the themes raised by the work, scientific concepts (or anti-scientific, pseudo-scientific) embedded in the text, the style in which the work is presented, the questions sparked by the approach of the author, etc.

I will collect the journals each week (please label them with your name, the date, the entry number and the work and question you are responding to), and I will call on you frequently in class to share your journal entry as a way of facilitating discussion. If you must be absent from class you must have the journal entry in the box outside my office (E-222) by Wednesday of that week in order to get full credit for that week's reading log. Sometimes the entry will be a response to a question which I have posed to you about the text -- or to one of two questions from a list of reading questions on the text available on my website.  If no specific question is posed you are to write your own response, analysis, and questions to the text. There will usually be an entry each session. Hence, you will have generated about 20-30 pages of journaling by the end of the semester. Make notes at the end of the entry on vocabulary, concepts, or quotes that struck you or that you have questions about. I encourage you to explicate scientific concepts that you see as relevant to the text under discussion. The response journal will be worth 45% of your overall class grade. Since you may refer to your response journal entries for the exams it particularly behooves you to be thorough and thoughtful.

I will return the log entries probably in clusters of 2 or 3 rather than 1 at a time. Keep a copy for yourself of every entry you submit. This not only gives you a back-up in case something goes astray, it allows you to continue your review and studying on your own and to refer back to earlier entries as you think about new ones.

5) Midterm and Final: The midterm exam will be a take-home essay (you will have a choice of two topics) covering all the readings up to the date of the midterm. The response should be approximately 5 typed pages in length and should not exceed 10. It will be worth 20% of the overall course grade; the final exam will be in-class and will include short answer identifications (about 30 min.) for which you may not use your notes, and then a choice of essay questions for which you may refer to your response journal only. The final will count 20% of the course grade.

Grading Weights

Quizzes (unannounced, numerous) 20% of midterm; 20% of final exam grade
Midterm Examination 20% of the course grade
Response Journal collectively -- 45% of the course grade; Entries due weekly!
Final Examination 20% of the course grade
Class Participation 15% of the course grade

Assignment Schedule (Click here for a day to day breakout of the course assignments)

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