Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies

EN2F5/EN3F5 Alternative Lifeworlds

Assessed Essay Topics

Term/Essay 1

Intermediate year: 3000 words

Finalists: 4000 words.

Consult essay deadlines on departmental website for due date.

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The following topics are suggestions. You may modify them, or devise one of your own, but should do so only in consultation with your seminar tutor (either by email or in person).

While you may range as widely as you like in AL texts, not necessarily confining yourself to books studied on the module, you should make detailed reference to at least TWO texts studied during TERM ONE.*

*Unless answering the final question (no.14).

1. “I was unable to come to a conclusion. The story was so fantastic and incredible, the telling so credible and sober.” The Time Machine (Section 12)

Write an essay on the relationship between the real and the fantastic in at least two texts you have studied this term.

2. “Sf is a cultural mode that struggles with the implications of discoveries in science and technology for human social lives and philosophical connections. The genre is interested in real science, to be sure, but it is equally concerned with mythologies of science.” Sherryl Vint, Science Fiction – A Guide for the Perplexed (Ch.1)

Taking all or part of this quotation as your cue, write an essay on the role/representation of science/the scientist in at least two Alt. Lifeworlds texts.

3. Write an essay exploring ‘contact’ as a key feature in at least two Alt. Lifeworld texts. (You are free to define ‘contact’ in the manner you prefer.)

4. In what ways do travel and/or transport feature as significant in Alternative Lifeworld fiction? Answer with reference to at least two texts.

5. “[Queer Theory] tends to be sceptical about epistemologies which see sexual orientation as a fixed identity so that sf which describes bodies, genders, sexualities as fluid is much more in harmony with approaches that celebrate fluidity, liminality and other radical tactics for deconstructing the rigidity of binary identity categories.” Wendy Pearson, ‘Queer Theory.’

Elaborate on this statement in a reading of ‘queerness’ or sex/sexuality in at least two texts we have covered this term.

6. “When you feel a conflict, try the Oankali way. Embrace difference.” Octavia Butler, Adulthood Rites (1988)

Lots of futuristic fiction celebrates diversity, equality and cosmopolitan outlooks, but it often does so in a context of historical or ongoing forms of exploitation or discrimination. Write on at least two term one texts with this claim in mind.

7. Write an essay on the treatment of the superhero/superhuman abilities in at least two AL texts. Take some time to critically reflect on the positive and negative elements of such figures and their power(s).

8. In what ways do biology and/or evolutionary ideas form a crucial element of AL texts we have studied to date?

9. Resources* are a common concern in many alternative lifeworld fictions. Write an essay on how and why their abundance and/or scarcity is a key feature of at least two of the texts we have covered. (*Resources can be defined in multiple ways, natural or artificial, e.g. energy reserves, food supplies, forests, machines, air, water, labour, buildings, minerals, technology, etc.)

10. Do you agree with Samuel Delany’s assertion (in his essay “About 5750 words”) that sf is essentially writing about “events that have not happened”? Refer to at least two texts in your answer.

11. They ran away from . . . it. To this day, I will never really know what “it” was, o.’ Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon (206).

Write an essay on the treatment and presentation of the radically alien and/or the inexplicable and/or the ‘Weird’ in at least two texts we have read this term.

12. “A central concern in the critical utopia is the awareness of the limitations of the utopian tradition, so that these texts reject utopia as a blueprint while preserving it as a dream. Furthermore, the novels dwell on the conflict between the originary world and the utopian society opposed to it so that the process of social change is more directly articulated. Finally, the novels focus on the continuing presence of difference and imperfection within the utopian society itself and thus render more recognizable and dynamic alternatives.” (Tom Moylan, Demand the Impossible, 10-11)

How “successful” are the utopias (or, if you like, the dystopias) presented in the texts we have read this term? (Moylan’s quotation is included for guidance, but you are free to read “success” in any way you see fit).

13. Write an essay on the importance of one of the following in Term One texts: Time Travel; Empire and/or Colonialism; feminism; political movements/ideologies; work; Technology; Language and/or Communication; Warfare and/or Militarism; Memory; Folklore and/or fantasy; industry; Body modification; the Family; Landscapes; the city; Animals; ‘Race’ and/or Racism; Illness; the Apocalyptic; Automation/Automata; memory; energy; folklore and/or fantasy; vehicles; ecology; food; Corporate power.

14. Make a case for the inclusion of a text you have read/seen/played that is not on the syllabus. Your essay must refer in detail to at least one set text from Term One by way of comparison. (“Text” is not necessarily confined to a work of fiction such as a novel. It can also mean a play, poem, etc., but also non-fiction work, or films, video games, etc. – run it by your tutor first!)