ENG 685: Honors Seminar
Utopian Fiction and Film
Dr. Peter Sands || Spring 2016
sands@uwm.edu
Class: HON 195, TR 12:30-1:45
Office hours: TR 2-3 and by appt.
Office: HON 146
Tel: 229.4804
Introduction
Utopianism refers to what Lyman Sargent calls “social dreaming,” or imagining
alternatives to already existing society. One version, the American dream, begins in Europe with
the twin drives to colonize the New World and to create new, alternative societies. The dream
eventually encompasses non-European arrivals, indigenous peoples, and various forms of both
homegrown and imported ideas about proper ways to organize a functioning society. This course
is an historically ordered survey of selected versions of those dreams, covering the explosion of
utopianism in the nineteenth century, early dystopian literature, women’s utopian writing, and
contemporary film.
One way to organize your understanding of the course is through the ebb and flow of
utopian and dystopian—or apocalyptic—themes in the literature, and what that reveals about
economic realities, ideas of liberty and constraint, and the swiftly changing world of the last two
centuries. We’ll think of others as we go along.
Because this is a seminar, there is quite a lot of reading, both primary and secondary.
Students are expected to bring to each week’s discussion their own research in preparation for
the final project, a significant research paper.
Finally, this is a kind of un-syllabus: much of the secondary materials and research
questions will be generated by students. We will improvise.
Required Materials
Some materials are online. The following texts have been ordered at the UWM Bookstore
and are required:
Looking Backward
Caesar's Column
It Can't Happen Here
Herland
Parable of the Sower
Pacific Edge
ISBN 1-55111-406-2
ISBN-10: 0819566667
ISBN-10: 045121658X
ISBN 978-1-55111-987-8
ISBN-10: 0446675504
ISBN-10: 0312890389
Film: Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, 2008).
Recommended Additional/Possible Texts:
Mizora
ISBN-10: 0815628390
World Made by Hand
ISBN-10: 0802144012
ENG 685/Sands: 2
Course Goals




Define and explore the nature of research in the humanities
Write and revise critical work on literary texts
Identify and use tools for digital humanities research to create and share research objects
Explore the history of utopias and utopianism in American literature and culture
Flexible Research Project
This seminar satisfies the senior research requirement at UWM, requiring students to
conduct original research and present it in an appropriate forum. We will do this in a slightly
unconventional way: by discussing, negotiating, and agreeing on the forms that the research
production might take, in addition to actually producing the final products.
Each week, we will work on constructing a bibliography or collection of secondary
material, aligning them with historical events contemporaneous to their composition and with
their actual settings in time: the near future, the present, the far future.
Students produce a final research project about utopianism in American literary or film
texts, under one or more of the flexible options described in the “Major Project Guidelines” on
D2L. This assignment will go through a proposal, draft, and revision process before final
presentation in class.
Grading
Your grade will be calculated by averaging together two separate grades:
1. Informal writing: includes Bibliography, Weekly Postings, Reflections, and any regular
new media writing you do that is class related: a blog, etc.
2. Formal writing: your major project.
Informal-Writing Contract:
A grading contract is an advantage to students: because you don’t stand or fall on a single
assessment, your grade more accurately reflects the quality of your work over time, rather than
how you do on a particular day or at a particular task. What’s more, this contract emphasizes the
quality of your understanding and interaction with the texts and each other over less-relevant
measures.
Informal writing will be assessed as Acceptable or Unacceptable. You will be notified if
your work is Unacceptable; otherwise assume that completion = Acceptable.
Acceptable
On-task
Actively engaged/cites reading/reflective
Around 250 words
On time
Unacceptable
Sloppy, careless, rushed, mechanical errors
Factually/logically inaccurate
Too short/non-substantive
Late
90-100 % Acceptables = A; 80-89 % = B; 70-89 % = C; 60-79 % = D; 0 - 69 % = F
ENG 685/Sands: 3
Major Projects:
The project will be graded on an A-F scale, focusing on quality of writing and research,
the writer’s demonstrated understanding of literature, literary critical terms and practices, and
culture and history, not time and effort expended. A rubric explaining grade ranges is available
on the course website.
A late project will be reduced in grade, and may result in a failing grade for the
assignment.
Administrative Matters
For relevant policy governing attendance, religious observances, and disabilities,
incompletes, and the like, please visit: http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/SyllabusLinks.pdf. See me
with any questions, of course, after reading the policies.
This class meets twice a week for about 150 minutes, or 37.5 hours of class time. You
should expect to take at least 60 hours over the course of the semester reading the required texts.
There are also multiple research tasks which should occupy 1-2 hours each week, in addition to
the time you will need to complete your final research projects. All told, this class is likely to
take 147.5 hours of your time.