ENGL278T: Literature of Science and Technology
“Human Beings, Being Human”
Instructor: Ms. Michelle Boswell
E-mail: mboswell@umd.edu
Office: Tawes 2134
Fall 2010: Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
Classroom: Tawes 0207
Office hours: W 1:00-3:00 and by appointment
Course Description
What does it mean to be human? In particular, what does it mean to be human in an age of ever-increasing
technologies, especially those that augment our bodies and minds? Do our ethics always develop in
correspondence with our technological skill? How have writers asked or responded to such questions about
the benefits and problems that accompany scientific and technological advancements?
In this course, we will examine science and technology through the lens of English and American literature,
primarily between 1800 and the present. We will begin the semester by reading excerpts from texts by early
natural and experimental philosophers of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment and discuss how they
perceived and celebrated the promise of natural philosophy. We will explore some of their founding
principles and examine their underlying assumptions as well as their cultural and political exigencies.
We will examine how literary works through subsequent centuries represent the ethics of science and
technology and survey their representations of not only the beneficial developments science has offered
Western society, but also the heavy toll industrialization and the machinery of war take on citizens, soldiers,
and scientists alike. By the end of this course, students will have thoughtfully considered the literary,
historical, and cultural contexts surrounding burgeoning scientific communities in Britain and the United
States, and we will have contemplated what these texts suggest it means to be human, and humane, in a
technological age.
Learning Outcomes
At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
(1) demonstrate familiarity and facility with fundamental terminology and concepts associated with
the analysis of English and American texts containing scientific themes;
(2) demonstrate understanding of the methods of textual analysis and close reading used by literary
scholars;
(3) demonstrate critical thinking in the evaluation of approaches and techniques in the literary arts;
(4) describe how language use is related to ways of thinking within both scientific communities and
literary circles who engage the same scientific debates;
(5) demonstrate the ability to formulate a thesis related to literature and science and to support the
thesis with evidence and argumentation.
Required Texts
Bowler & Morus, Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey (Chicago UP), ISBN: 978-0226068619
Butler, Dawn (Aspect), ISBN: 978-0446603775
Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Del Rey), ISBN: 978-0345404473
Frayn, Copenhagen (Anchor), ISBN: 978-0385720793
Huxley, Brave New World (Harper), ISBN: 978-0060850524
Shelley, Frankenstein (Penguin), ISBN: 978-0141439471
Wells, The Time Machine (Norton), ISBN: 978-0393927948
Other readings will be made available through Research Port (RP), on Blackboard (ELMS), or on
photocopied handouts (H). We will also likely view selected scenes from films or television that discuss our
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themes (e.g., Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica). These films or episodes may also be used as content to be
considered and examined in your written work.
Student Responsibilities and Assignments
The course will require a high level of engagement from students through careful reading of all required
texts and frequent participation in class discussion. Readings must be completed by the date that they are
listed. Students are expected to adhere to deadlines for written work. Two short papers (approximately 5
pages each) and a final exam will practice literary analysis of the required texts. Students will also be required
to complete numerous quizzes and written responses.
This syllabus is subject to change as I deem necessary, and such changes will be announced in class and posted on
ELMS. If you miss a class, you still remain responsible for any such changes or assignments. No deadlines
will be moved to an earlier date, though I reserve the right to postpone them.
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all classes. Excessive absences (more than 3) will negatively affect the
participation portion of your grade and may potentially also damage your quiz average. You are accountable
for all material covered during an absence. If you miss a quiz and wish to make it up, you must document
that absence according to the student honor pledge and type no more than a one-page, double-spaced
response to the material covered on the date of your absence. More details about documenting absences
will follow. For absences due to religious observance or team athletic events, you must notify me of those
anticipated absences in writing before the end of the second week of the class.
Grade Percentages
Your grade will be calculated according to the following percentages:
Paper 1
Paper 2
Final Exam
Quizzes & Homework
Participation
15%
25%
30%
15%
15%
Papers demonstrate students’ abilities to form critical analyses of how literary texts ask questions about or
respond to scientific developments. Papers must argue for the student’s original interpretation, identifying
the paper’s argument in a clear thesis and supporting it with carefully chosen, specific textual evidence.
Essays are due at the beginning of the class periods on which they are due. They will be considered late 10
minutes after class begins. A letter grade deduction will be applied for each calendar day it is not turned
into me personally.
Papers are due in two stages: the first version should be a finished draft, on which you will receive
comments but no grade. The second version, due a week after you receive comments on the first,
will receive only a grade.
The Final Exam will be a cumulative assessment of students’ breadth of knowledge about the literary texts,
their central themes, terminology, key historical figures in science, and scientific theories related to the
literature covered over the course of the semester. The exam will includes an objective section on key terms,
writers, and scientists, as well as a short-answer section of quote identification and explication.
Quizzes may be announced or unannounced. Quizzes test students’ reading completion and comprehension.
Homework, including reading, studying, and written work is expected to take you 2 hours for every hour
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Policies & Syllabus
spent in class. In other words, you should expect to spend, on average, 6 hours per week out of class
preparing for our meetings. When papers are due, that time is likely to increase.
Participation is important, especially in a class of this size. I expect you to participate week in, week out, and
your participation grade will be evaluated according to the quantity and quality of your contributions during
class discussions and on our ELMS discussion board. For each class meeting, at least one student will be
responsible for posting a thoughtful question on the discussion board; another student will be responsible
for posting a response. The rest of the class must read these questions and responses before the class
meeting. Being prepared for class (book, notebook, readings and written homework assignments
completed) is essential. Also, always remember it is common courtesy to turn off your cell phones or turn
them to silent/vibrate.
Academic Integrity
The University of Maryland, College park has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the
Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and
graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very
important for you to be aware of the consequences for cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more
information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.shc.umd.edu.
To further exhibit your commitment to academic integrity, remember to sign the Honor Pledge on all examinations
and assignments: “I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this
examination/assignment.”
Course Schedule
I. Monstrous Bodies
Week 1
31 Aug: Course Introduction
2 Sept: Bowler and Morus, Ch. 2 “The Scientific Revolution”; Ch. 18 “Biology and Ideology”
Week 2
7 Sept: Frankenstein (Author’s Introduction (1831), Preface by P.B. Shelley, and Volume 1)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Christabel” (ELMS)
9 Sept: Frankenstein
John Keats, “Lamia” (ELMS)
Denise Gigante, “The Monster in the Rainbow: Keats and the Science of Life” (ELMS)
Week 3
14 Sept: Frankenstein (Volume 2)
Paper 1 Assigned
16 Sept: Frankenstein (Volume 3)
Week 4
21 Sept: Bowler and Morus, Ch. 6 “The Darwinian Revolution,”
Selections from Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man (ELMS)
23 Sept: Bowler and Morus, Ch. 21 “Science and Gender
Women’s Responses to Darwin: George Eliot, Constance Naden, May Kendall, Mathilde Blind
(ELMS)
Week 5
28 Sept: The Time Machine (Entire; pp. 1-71)
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“On Extinction”; “The Man of the Year Million”; “The Extinction of Man”; from “The ‘Cyclic‘
Delusion” (pp. 136-149 in The Time Machine)
30 Sept: The Time Machine
Lankester, from Degeneration, “A Chapter in Darwinism” and T.H. Huxley, from The Struggle for
Existence (pp. 157-168)
Recommended: Bowler and Morus, Ch. 17 “Science and Technology”
Week 6
5 Oct: The Time Machine
PAPER 1 DUE
Showalter, “The Apocalyptic Fables of H. G. Wells” and Colin Manlove, “H.G. Wells and the
Machine in Victorian Fiction” (pp. 213-221 and 243-252)
7 Oct: Bowler and Morus, Ch. 13 “The Emergence of the Human Sciences” and Ch. 19 “Science and
Medicine”
II. Preserving Humanity
Week 7
12 Oct: Brave New World (Ch’s 1-9; pp. 1-145)
14 Oct: Brave New World (Ch’s 10-13-; pp. 146--197)
Week 8
19 Oct: Brave New World (Ch’s 14-end; pp. 198-259) PAPER 1 DUE (revised draft)
Paper 2 Assigned
21 Oct: Bowler and Morus, Ch. 20 “Science and War”; Einstein’s Letter to Roosevelt (ELMS), Feynman
excerpt (ELMS)
Week 9
26 Oct: Copenhagen (Entire)
28 Oct: Copenhagen; watch film
Week 10
2 Nov: Copenhagen; watch film
4 Nov: Copenhagen
III. Cyborgs and Aliens
Week 11
9 Nov: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
11 Nov: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
(Chapters 1-11; pp. 1-128)
PAPER 2 DUE
Week 12
16 Nov: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Chapters 12-end; pp. 129-244)
18 Nov: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
N. Katherine Hayles, from How We Became Posthuman (ELMS)
Begin Blade Runner in class.
Week 13
23 Nov: Blade Runner
PAPER 2 DUE (revised)
25 Nov: NO CLASS; THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
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Week 14
30 Nov: Dawn (Parts I and II, “Womb” and “Family; pp. 1-111),
Tamara Leaver, “‘Humanity’s Children’: Constructing and Confronting the Cylons” (ELMS)
Watch Battlestar Galactica episode in class.
CourseEvalUM opens
2 Dec: Dawn
Week 15
7 Dec: Dawn (Parts III and IV, “Nursery” and “The Training Floor” ; pp. 113-248)
9 Dec: Dawn
Week 16
17 December (Friday): FINAL EXAM 1:30-3:30 p.m.
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Boswell Fall 2010
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