ENGL 2305: Introduction to Dystopian Fiction
Spring 2016, Mondays & Wednesdays, 4:00-5:30 PM
Instructor: Ben Good
208 Agnes Arnold Hall
713-743-3004
bpgood@uh.edu
Course Description:
This course introduces undergraduate students to the elements of literary fiction through the
discussion, analysis, and synthesis of dystopian texts, including selections of short fiction,
several novels, and several popular films. We will consider the narrative structures of these texts,
their political visions, their critiques of their own time, and their possible implications for readers
today. Through assigned readings and class discussion, students will learn to understand and
appreciate the literary elements and strategies that fiction authors employ, and they will learn to
interrogate how dystopian fiction functions as a form of social critique.
Each week, we will engage in group discussions of assigned readings, reflecting on how writers
utilize literary elements in dystopian works in order to present social critiques. Students will be
expected to reflect on readings by participating in class discussions and completing brief reading
responses. Readings will include selections from short stories as well as the novels Brave New
World, The Giver, and 1984. We will also watch and reflect on several dystopian films, and we
will consider why the genre of dystopian fiction remains so popular and relevant in our society
today.
For this course, students will compose three major essays. The first major paper will require
students to analyze how writers of dystopian fiction employ various literary elements and
strategies in order to offer their social critiques. The second essay will ask students engage in
close reading, to trace and analyze a keyword or keywords as it functions in several dystopian
texts. The final paper will invite students to analyze how one particular dystopian film, such as
The Hunger Games, presents a social critique through literary elements and strategies that are
characteristic of dystopian fiction.