Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction: Challenging Genres

Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction: Challenging Genres
	TABLE OF CONTENTS
	ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
	INTRODUCTION: Challenging Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction
		SF, SPECULATIVE FICTION, AND HONORING LITERACY
		SF AND SPECULATIVE FICTION: “A HARD AND FAST DEFINITION?”
		CAVEATS, MOTIFS, AND ASSORTED THREADS
		REFERENCES
	1. A CASE FOR SF AND SPECULATIVE FICTION: An Introductory Consideration
		THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN: KNOWING SF WHEN YOU SEE IT
		SF AMONG THE GENRES: A BRIEF HISTORY
			Ancient Roots
			SF in the 1600s
			SF in the 1700s
			SF in the 1800s
			SF in the Early- to Mid-1900s
			New Wave SF of the 1960s, 1970s
			Late Twentieth Century SF Film and TV
			Recent SF and Beyond
			Critical Response and Scholarship of SF
		SELECTED ANNOTATED RESOURCE LIST
		NOTES
		REFERENCES
	2. SF AND SPECULATIVE NOVELS: Confronting the Science and the Fiction
		DEFINING SCIENCE FICTION
			Plausible Science and Technologies
			The Novum
			Big Picture: Impact on Society and Humans
			Nature of Science
		IN THE CLASSROOM
			Brahe and Kepler
			The Canal Controversy
			The intervening period between Lowell and Mariner 4
			The Modern Era and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars
		CONCLUSION
		REFERENCES
	3. SF NOVELS AND SOCIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTATION: Examining Real World Dynamics through Imaginative Displacement
		THE SF NOVEL AS SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
		SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
			Sex and Gender
			Race and Ethnicity
			Human Evolution
			Other Themes
			Miscellany: Human Relationships
		PAIRING SF NOVELS WITH SOCIAL RESEARCH
		MUSINGS ON THE NOVEL’S RELATION TO TEACHING SOCIOLOGY MORE GENERALLY
		REFERENCES
	4. “PEEL[ING] APART LAYERS OF MEANING” IN SF SHORT FICTION: Inviting Students to Extrapolate on the Effects of Change
		CRITICAL LITERACY IN A CHANGING SOCIETY
		SF AND CRITICAL THINKING
		SHORT SF AND CRITICAL THINKING
		HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE SF SHORT STORY
		WHAT ETHICAL ISSUES SURROUND THE USES AND MISUSES OF TECHNOLOGY?
			Creators and Creations
			Death and Destruction
		HOW IS HUMANITY SHAPED BY POWER STRUCTURES?
			Science as a Threat and Lure
			Power as a Threat and Lure
		HOW COULD THE DEFINITION OF HUMANITY EVOLVE?
			Evolving/Redefining Humanity
			Redefining Notions of Self and Society
		WHY THESE QUESTIONS MATTER
		REFERENCES
	5. READING ALIEN SUNS: Using SF Film to Teach a Political Literacy of Possibility
		SF FILM AND A NEW MODE OF CRITICAL LITERACY
		NOETIC SPACE AND THE FUTURE
		HOMO SACER AND BEHAVIORIST EDUCATION: KUBRICK’S DARK KOAN
		A HOME IN ANTICIPATORY SPACE? RE-TERRITORIALIZING THE FUTURE
		REFERENCES
	6. SINGULARITY, CYBORGS, DRONES, REPLICANTS AND AVATARS: Coming to Terms with the Digital Self
		PROGRESS AS A PLEA FOR A TRANSHUMANIST FUTURE
		TRANSHUMANISM AS A MOVEMENT
		MASS CULTURE AND NEW MEDIA: THE OPIATE OF DYSTOPIA
		SINGULARITY AND THE DIGITAL SELF
		TEACHING TO UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE IN “SCIENCE FICTION”
		REFERENCES
	7. TROUBLING NOTIONS OF REALITY IN CAPRICA: Examining “Paradoxical States” of Being
		HOLOBANDS, MEDIA AND CYLONS
		AVATARS AND BORDER CROSSINGS
		HYPERREALITY
		NOTES
		REFERENCES
	8. “I TRY TO REMEMBER WHO I AM AND WHO I AM NOT”: The Subjugation of Nature and Women Represented in The Hunger Games
		SOCIAL CRITICISM AND YOUNG ADULT DYSTOPIAN FICTION
		ECOFEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM
		“IF I CAN FORGET THEY’RE PEOPLE KILLING THEM WILL BE NO DIFFERENT AT ALL”
		“SOMEHOW IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO COAL AT SCHOOL”: A PROGRAM OF DEHUMANIZING OTHERS
		“IF YOU PUT ENOUGH PRESSURE ON COAL IT TURNS TO PEARLS”: REGENDERING KATNISS
		“I CAN’T SHAKE THE FEELING THAT I’M BEING WATCHED CONSTANTLY”: THE PERILS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN A SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY
		BEYOND “THE BASTARD STEPSON OF REAL LITERATURE”
		REFERENCES
	9. “IT’S A BIRD … IT’S A PLANE … IT’S … A COMIC BOOK IN THE CLASSROOM?”: Truth: Red, White, and Black as Test Case for Teaching Superhero Comics
		A SHORT HISTORY OF SUPERHERO COMIC BOOKS
		TRUTH: RED, WHITE, AND BLACK
		WHO DOES CAPTAIN AMERICA REPRESENT?
		FINAL THOUGHTS
		NOTES
		REFERENCES
	10. THE ENDURING POWER OF SF, SPECULATIVE AND DYSTOPIAN FICTION: Final Thoughts
		“DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”: THERE’S A REASON CAPTAIN AMERICA WEARS A MASK
		CALCULATING THE CORPORATE STATES OF AMERICA: REVISITING VONNEGUT’S PLAYER PIANO
		EDUCATION IN THE CORPORATE STATES OF AMERICA
			Democrats and Republicans: Two Sides of the Same Corporate Coin
			Education in the Corporate States of America
		WHENCE COME “THE LEFTOVERS”?: SPECULATIVE FICTION AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
			Our Speculative World, “Off-to-the-Side”
		LE GUIN’S “THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS”: ALLEGORY OF PRIVILEGE
		DIVERSITY AND THE RISE OF MAJORITY-MINORITY SCHOOLS
			Confronting Diversity, Equity, and Cultural Assumptions
		THE EDUCATION GAMES: REFORM AS DOUBLESPEAK
			“One Need Not Swallow Such Absurdities as This”
			High-stakes Standardized Tests
			Common Core State Standards
			Expertise in Education
			The Ends-Justify-the-Means Logic
		SEPARATE, UNEQUAL … AND DISTRACTED
			X-Men and The Hunger Games: Allegory as Unmasking
			Separate, Unequal … and Distracted
		TIME AS CAPITAL: THE RISE OF THE FRANTIC CLASS
			The Frantic Distraction of Surviving
			Frantic Students, Frantic Workers: The Rise of the Frantic Class
		CLONES, ASSEMBLY-LINE CAPITALISM, AND WAGE-SLAVES
			“Such a World Will Come to Pass”
		NOTES
		REFERENCES
	AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES