Course Theme: The Rhetoric of Science Fiction
This course will ask you to consider how science fiction (SF) functions as a powerful source of rhetoric concerning the relationship between science and society. A basic premise of the course is that science influences the development of science fiction, and SF in turn plays a role in the public perception of science and technology. Both scientists and SF authors use rhetoric to persuade audiences. As rhetoric, SF is not limited to print literature, but pervades television, film, video games, advertising, and even political discourse. In addition to developing thinking and writing skills, you will examine several overlapping questions:
- How do individuals and groups acquire the necessary knowledge to make informed and ethical decisions about how to live with science and technology?
- What messages do SF texts convey regarding how scientific and technological advances should be used by humans?
- How do SF worlds help us see our own world in new and surprising ways?
- In reading works by scientists and SF authors, what can we learn about rhetoric and writing?
Our readings from the Science and Society course reader will also help us explore George Orwell’s question, “What is Science?” In addition, we will read several SF short stories and view the SF film, Gattaca.
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I read a couple of great essays from an edited volume, Practicing Science Fiction. I found a lot of suggestions for texts to use in the course, including texts that examine popular representations of science and scientists. The course isn't just about SF, then, but how the relationship between SF, cultural representations of science, rhetoric, and "science" itself - this last concept will probably be the most challenging to engage with in the class.
We'll see how it all works together in the weeks to come. I hope to use the experience to write an even more focused course description... it's something I tend to keep tinkering with. I'm currently imagining a dissertation project focusing on how to integrate science fiction into the composition classroom - this would include pedagogical practice in addition to a theoretical rationale, i.e., how can SF be considered "rhetoric" and why is this important?
I like how you posed some questions, particularly “What messages do SF texts convey regarding how scientific and technological advances should be used by humans?” and “How do SF worlds help us see our own world in new and starling ways?” I think these questions will offer them opportunities to read with a much more critical lens about their daily lives, something I hope to accomplish in my 1102. Currently, I don’t have any questions, but I think articulating some for my course would be fruitful. This last year in 1101 and 1102, our syllabus didn’t have questions, which may have hindered students at times.
ReplyDeleteI’m curious too as to how students respond to the theme (as I’m sure you are too!), particularly how much they can push their paradigms. For my fall 1102 course, I’m still playing with my theme: Material Culture/al Spaces. Here’s a nascent description: As the title suggests, this theme is a blend of two foci: material culture, sometimes referred to as social objects, and cultural space, both real and imagined. In terms of the former, the social value of physical things is often overlooked in the study of human interactions and writing. We are not only surrounded by materials, but engage with objects, both in writing them as much as the write us, to gain a sense of meaning in the world. We give gifts, we show off our wealth, we collect things, we dress provocatively, we decorate our homes, we use pens, cell phones and computers to communicate, et al. In terms of the latter focus, space, an often taken-for-granted conceptual category, is inherently connected to human experience and writing. The spaces we occupy ― geographic regions, nations, cities, schools, hospitals, prisons, homes, our bodies, not to mention those mental spaces and maps we sometimes inhabit ― provide a framework for our experiences, as we learn who and what we are in society, our “proper place.”
This description obviously needs revision (and it’s getting more complicated since I’ve been reading Sid’s Postcomposition), but I hope it will offer students ways to explore topics outside the ubiquitous “boilerplates” (e.g. capital punishment, legalizing marijuana, media and violence or sex, et al.). In thinking about broad ideas about objects and spaces, I hope students will consider a much more thoughtful issue to investigate. This is part of the reason why I have two very general foci (possibly too general!). But another curiosity I have regards students and research topics in your course. What do you anticipate students will choose as topics with a SF and Rhetoric theme? Do you think they may begin their research with a SF inquiry, but then shift (not in an unproductive way as “falling back” on “boilerplates”) to a non-SF, uncommon 1101 topic?
Thanks, Phil - you helped me catch an embarrassing error in my course description: "starling" should have been "startling."
DeleteI think your course description is challenging and well-articulated. With some skillful coaching, I think it's a line of investigation your students could take up in their writings during the semester. Finding appropriate readings would be key, and I'm not certain which would be best. We read an essay in Sid's class called "I, Pencil" that might be good. Also, an essay called "The Telephone." Both essays explore how objects shape our lives...
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI love how you were able to incorporate the "Science and Society" reader into your SF concerns and I think that the quote that you used on facebook about SF, science, and rhetoric should be at the top of your syllabus as a kind of epigraph. As we've discussed via the Thacker article I sent you, SF in our technoscientific world tends to be used as a (rhetorical) justification for scientific pursuits in an uncritical fashion. I'll be fascinated to see how this turns out. Are you going to use blogs for your course? If so, I'd love to be linked in and see how the students are working. Hopefully you wil also give some updates about the class as you move through Summer B.