30165 - Anglo-American Literature 2 (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

Students will master a variety of North American literary productions in relation to their cultural, social and technological realities. Students will learn to appreciate literary productions as part of  complex, trans-media and inclusive contexts.

Course contents

“Counterecycling: Science Fiction and Cognitive Pollution”

While, around the world, traditional literary programs are losing resources and students, literature itself is often used to outline our world today outside of the mere academic context, especially to mediate technological innovation and scientific issues or discoveries. But how is literature in fact used? To outline our changing reality, critics and journalists alike tend to borrow taxonomies and patterns from the very popular genre of science-fiction, as well as from its ontological variables (fantasy, dystopia, utopia, post-apocalyptic). Orwell and Huxley are often mentioned when discussing post-truth; in many accounts of today’s world, we have become posthumans inhabiting cyberspace and smart cities, occupied by intelligent machines - including intelligent bombs. Similarly, most of the uncanny scientific and cultural fake news that travels internationally relies on a narrative tied to science-fiction plots, with a touch of spy stories: the Earth is flat, alien settlements have appeared on the moon and all what looks strange becomes a “new Frankenstein”.

However, even though Science Fiction literature has gone environmental, one gets the impression that it is not used to truly explore the evolving scenarios; instead, it is often employed to explain them, supporting what looks like carefully oriented (if not biased) views. Accordingly, we are consuming storylines based on a traditional opposition of heroes and villains that cannot but affect the way we perceive ourselves, more and more as vulnerable communities in need of more security, fearing and distrusting each other. By so doing, we contribute to the poor plot of a world narrative that casts us as characters, too; we are encouraged to become either fact checkers or trolls, either heroes or villains of a narrative we inhabit and trust, as we recognize its narratology. Is literature gone environmental encouraging critical thinking or does it contribute to cognitive pollution? Cognitive pollution is, in fact, the consequence of an imagination saturated by conceptual biases, in turn relying on polarized narratives that endanger critical thinking. Is the traditional Science Fiction language being used to tame and frame what is in its making today?

Through an assessment of traditional North American Science Fiction stories (and media adaptations), this course investigates whether using (in fact reusing) this genre traditional literary language helps to truly understand new complex phenomena or whether, instead, it induces cognitive pollution, therefore inhibiting our ability to observe. Recycling is certainly a useful action for the environment, but recycling literary language is not necessarily useful for seeing the limits and potential of a situation, especially where ontological levels are confused through a shared semantic.

Among the themes discussed are:

• Inventing the future: literature and technology
• The evolving semantics of Science Fiction
• The evolving semantics of Technology
• Environmental explorations: from cyberspace to metaverse
• Artificial or artful Intelligence?

The course will include the following one-day playful seminars:

• Seminar 1: “Who Is Afraid of ChatGPT?” (October, date tbc)
• Seminar 2: “The Medium: the Board Game that helps you navigate environmental complexity” (November, date tbc)

Please Note: This course is organized as part of the sustainability phase of the European Project “PERFORMIGRATIONS: People Are the Territory” (www.performigratios.eu ), in the frame of the spin-off research project “WeTell: Storytelling and Civic Awareness” (https://site.unibo.it/wetell/en ) and in collaboration with the literary portal https://site.unibo.it/canadausa . The main goal is to encourage a new global mentality, deeply rooted in the humanities, so to reorient today geopolitics and create a happier and more just world. No knowledge is useful if it leads to satisfy only a few people’s urgent needs, be that material or emotional; knowledge is useful if it induces us to question our communal existence, helping us to learn how to act upon our community in responsible ways, in turn leading to a truly shared happiness.

Important: EVERYBODY IS WELCOME AND DIVERSITY (IN ALL ITS FORMS) IS WELCOME TOO.

This course will feature a series of guest scholars and professionals to encourage the dialogue between literature and civic society so to widen our knowledge of learning and training opportunities available nationally or internationally. The list of featured guests will available when classes start.

 

Readings/Bibliography

The list of primary and secondary sources will be available in due course and implemented every week, based on the discussed topics and authors. In view of the final exam, students will be able to create and customize their reading list, as well as the theme for their essay under the supervision of the course director.

Teaching methods

Students’ active participations is strongly encouraged. 

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of two parts:

a) Oral Exam.

Students can choose between:

• Class presentation (single or in-group, max 4 people), with/without multimedia support, max 15 minutes + 5 minute discussion. Class presentations will run in December.
• One to one conversation with the instructor aiming at assessing the student’s knowledge of the course themes (exam dates on AlmaEsami).

b) Written Exam

Essay (in English, 3500-4000 words). Students must choose their focus and create a customized reading list, to be assessed by the course director and including at least three primary sources and five secondary sources (max two non-literary ones, such as: movies, tv series, videogames, music scores, etc.). Essays will be evaluated based on methodology, consistent critical thinking, and a working hypothesis in line with the course themes. Particularly appreciated are: Student’s ability to reorganize course materials into an original critical discourse/perspective; sound reference to American literature, history and culture; Quality and property of the written language (English).

 

Teaching tools

Traditional and Multimedia tools

Links to further information

https://site.unibo.it/wetell/en

Office hours

See the website of Elena Lamberti