MLU
Seminar: Contemporary African American Dystopian Fiction - Vertiefungsmodul - Details
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General information

Course name Seminar: Contemporary African American Dystopian Fiction - Vertiefungsmodul
Course number ANG.05295.03; ANG.06145.02
Semester WiSe 2023/24
Current number of participants 10
expected number of participants 25
Home institute Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Courses type Seminar in category Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen
First date Thursday, 19.10.2023 12:15 - 13:45, Room: Seminarraum 11 (R.2.39) [EA 26-27]
Studiengänge (für) ANG.05294.03 für LA Gym Englisch (2012+2015) / MA Angloam. Lit., Spr u Kult. 120 LP (2015) / MA IKEAS 120 LP (2015) / MA Intern. Area Stud. (2011+2015)
ANG.06145.02 für MA Angloam. Lit., Spr u Kult. 120 LP (2015) / MA IKEAS 120 LP (2015) / MA Intern. Area Stud. (2011+2015)
SWS 2

Module assignments

Comment/Description

Recent African American dystopian short stories and novels often portray imaginary societies that live in apocalyptic settings far away from today’s reality and yet these literary texts address issues such as race and racism, class, gender, violence, and (no) hope that are relevant for understanding the contemporary American society. In this course, we will first examine a set of concepts and ideas, including “science fiction,” “utopia/dystopia,” and “Afrofuturism” and determine a group of characteristics of African American dystopian fiction before we explore a short story and (selected chapters of) a novel written each by three outstanding representatives of this genre: Octavia E. Butler – “Bloodchild” (1984) and Parable of the Sower (1993); N. K. Jemisin – “The Effluent Engine” (2011) and The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth (2015); and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah – “Zimmerland” (2020) and Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel (2023). Please purchase the edition of the novels mentioned below.

Required texts:

Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame. Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel. Pantheon, 2023.
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Headline, 2019.
Jemisin, N. K. The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth. Little, Brown Book, 2016.

Additional course material will be made available on the ILIAS platform.