SOAN 240 Utopias and Dystopias: Sociology of Science Fiction Linfield College Fall 2015

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1 SOAN 240 Utopias and Dystopias: Sociology of Science Fiction Linfield College Fall a dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars. -Kirk, Star Trek, Whom Gods Destroy Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want. -Spock, Star Trek, "Errand of Mercy Dr. Roger Corby: Can you imagine how life could be improved if we could do away with jealousy, greed, hate?... Kirk: It can also be improved by eliminating love, tenderness, sentiment the other side of the coin. -Star Trek, "What are Little Girls Made Of?" Instructor: Scott Vandehey, PhD svandeh@linfield.edu On-line Chat: by appointment Course Information: This course is 4 credit hours and fulfills Linfield Curriculum requirements in Ultimate Questions or Individuals, Systems, and Societies. For students entering Linfield Fall 2010 or later, in order to earn Linfield Curriculum credits for this course, you must complete the electronic submission of exemplar work and supporting descriptions by the last day of finals week, as discussed in the Linfield College Course Catalog, pages credits. Course Description: This course will engage with the five-hundred-year-old tradition of utopian fiction as a way of learning how to think about one crucial issue: How best can human beings arrange ourselves to live together, sustainably, without unnecessary suffering, gross injustices, and unmerited inequalities? This question has been a prime motivator for not only the writers of utopian fiction, but also for many social theorists (who have different analyses of what causes social inequities, and who also have differing degrees of hope that humans can organize themselves in ways that would minimize those injustices and inequalities). Within each utopian and dystopian vision we will examine the nature of social organization and its impact on individual and collective lives. The readings will invite us to explore and consider such issues as the organization of labor, the nature of community, the family, property relations, pleasure and desire, class, gender, race, structures of decision-making, science and technology, violence, nature and ecology, membership and exclusion, politics, anxiety and hope -- all within the context of science fiction utopias and dystopias, and related readings in social theory. 1

2 Some of the principal questions and issues we will investigate include: What is utopia; What is dystopia; What is the relationship between utopian and dystopian thinking; What social and political function do utopian/dystopian visions fill; What is science fiction; What function does science fiction play in society; What is the relationship between utopia, dystopia, and science fiction; How can social theory be applied to a literary genre. Course Objectives & Learning Outcomes: This course may be taken for either IS or UQ Linfield Curriculum credit. The learning objectives and how we will meet those objectives in this course are listed below under the respective headings. IS Designation LEARNING OBJECTIVE Understand individual, systemic, and/or social processes; HOW OBJECTIVE IS MET Explore how subgroups experience dominant group discourse through constructions of alternative societal structures in utopic and dystopic thought and social theory. Analyze individuals, systems, and/or societies through multiple frames of reference; Think critically about the ways that society affects individual behavior and/or individual behavior affects society; Articulate how key theoretical principles can be used to explain individual and social processes, inform public policy and/or develop practical approaches to human problems across local, regional, and/or global contexts. Using theory and utopic and dystopic constructions of alternative societies, the impact of dominant frames of race, gender, militarization, sexual orientations and class are explored. See above. Explore ways in which policies that govern sexual orientation, surveillance, race and politics may be applied or theorized upon as a result of human experience. 2

3 UQ Designation LEARNING OBJECTIVE Articulating and evaluating core assumptions and paradigms through which knowledge is acquired and assessed. HOW OBJECTIVE IS MET Through the use of utopic and dystopic theory, science fiction, and social theory, we explore the underlying assumptions that are taken for granted in society and the human experience. Engaging ambiguity through a critical analysis of fundamental beliefs, cultural practices, and competing truth claims. Developing greater selfknowledge and wisdom, as evidenced in the ability for meaningful dialogue, and awareness of social responsibility and understanding. Utopic and dystopic theories and fiction question and critique societies in some manner, either by creating an idealized version of society, or through a critique of the application of a theory. This course encourages students to consider alternative models of the world and society, and to understand more about why they believe what they believe about the world around them. Required Texts: Jameson, Fredric Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. New York: Verso. More, Sir Thomas Utopia. Huxley, Aldous Brave New World. Marx, Karl and Fredric Engels The Communist Manifesto. Requirements: In addition to reading assigned course material and actively participating in class discussions, you will be able to demonstrate mastery of course materials through the following assignments: city investigation papers, class participation, and class session leadership. Your grade in this course will be based on the following measures of your performance: 1) Episode Discussion & Participation 30% 2) Reading Discussion 20% 3) Social Theory & Utopia Paper 20% 4) Final Exam 30% 100% 3

4 1) Episode Discussion & Participation Each week an episode of Star Trek or Star Trek: The Next Generation will be assigned viewing. You will be expected to watch the episode and then post a response to the episode for the week in the discussion boards. You should make connections between the episode and the readings for the week, and prior readings. You should also describe any insights or questions you had while watching and thinking about the episode. Your initial post is due by the end of the day, Thursday. In addition, you will be expected to respond to at least two other students' posts. This is designed to be an interactive forum. Follow-up questions may be asked and conversations between students are encouraged. To facilitate discussion, 2 additional responses to other students' posts are required. Responses are due by Sunday. There are no right or wrong answers; rather there are issues to be discussed, investigated, and debated and social science concepts to be applied. Your postings should be substantial at least a minimum of a longer paragraph or two in length is a good rule of thumb. They should demonstrate that you have viewed the episode, read the assignments and taken the time to think about them seriously. Please feel free to incorporate personal views and experiences, but be sure to connect them to specific readings, and support your arguments with reasoning and evidence. To ensure quality posts, you can ask yourself the following questions: Does this post help further or deepen the class conversation about the episode and readings? Does my post sound like something I could have written without ever watching the episode or reading these particular assignments, or just by skimming them? If so, revise and go deeper. Your postings should demonstrate that you have watched the episode, read the assignment, are familiar with -- and thought about -- the main insights, arguments, and themes, and have made connections with the episode and readings. If you need help coming up with things to write about, use the following questions to prompt your responses: How do the insights and analyses from the readings connect with the plot or themes in the episode? How does the episode relate to various conceptions of utopia or dystopia? What message or implication might be present in the episode? What am I learning? What new ideas or interesting thoughts have the assignments for this week prompted? What questions the episode raises? Weekly posting should always be grounded in the specific ideas and insights of that week s episode and readings. A higher quality weekly reflection requires serious engagement with the sociological and anthropological insights and analyses you encounter, rather than falling back on previously held notions and familiar perspectives learning, after all, is about the broadening and deepening of understanding. I will closely attend to both the number and the quality of your posts. Your responses to each others' posts should go beyond I agree or I disagree or "I like your post." The thoughtfulness and quality of your responses to each other will to a large degree determine what kind of learning community you help create on-line, and how this learning community can further your understanding and over-all experience this term. Dialogue is the soul of learning, and certainly any sense of belonging to a real learning community, where the 4

5 ideas matter and relate to your own life, is partly dependent on your willingness to initiate or enter into on-line conversations with your classmates. 2) Reading Discussion At the beginning of each week (Tuesday), a fellow student will post a discussion of the readings for that week in the discussion board. This post is designed to help everyone reflect on the readings, guide our discussion of the readings, point out important themes and concepts from the readings, and connect the readings to prior readings. Some questions these posts might consider include: What is(are) the main point(s) of the reading? What is the author trying to argue/prove and how? Is the author s argument convincing or not, and why? What are the new and interesting ideas presented? Is something confusing or unintelligible? How might this reading connect or relate to previous readings or episodes? Propose at least 2 discussion questions. You will be assigned a 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the semester. It is your responsibility to keep on top of the requirement and make sure your posts are completed on time. In addition, everyone is required to make at least one response to the reading discussion each week. 3) Social Theory & Utopia Paper Due Sunday, Nov. 1st Expanding upon our reading and discussion of utopia and social theory, you will write a 5 page paper in which you choose one social theorist to analyze. You may choose from Rousseau, Durkheim, Weber, Marx, or Foucault. Your paper should: Discuss the main points of the social theorist Consider whether the particular theory in question is utopian, dystopian, or both, and the implications of such a designation Reflect on how the theory impacts your own life 4) Final Exam The final exam will be made available the last week of class and will be due the following Saturday. The exam will be comprehensive, and expect you to draw from and make connections between materials covered over the entire course. The exam will be essay-based and ask you to apply the theoretical tools developed over the course to specific manifestations of science fiction as depicted through Star Trek. 5

6 READING SCHEDULE WEEK 1 Introducing Utopia and the Sociological Imagination Review Syllabus and Course Objectives and Requirements Mills, The Promise (Blackboard) Sargent, Utopianism Introduction & Chapter 1 (Blackboard) WEEK 2 Introducing the Ideal Society More, Utopia Book 1 Rousseau, The Social Contract Book 1 ( More, Utopia Book 2, through Of Their Living and Mutual Conversations WEEK 3 Investigating the Ideal Society More, Utopia Book 2, through Of Bondsman, Sick Persons, Wedlock More, Utopia finish WEEK 4 Political Utopia & Dystopia Sargent, Utopianism Chapters 6, 7 & Conclusion (Blackboard) Jameson, To Reconsider the Relationship between (Blackboard) Jameson, Utopianism and Anti-Utopianism (Blackboard) Huxley, Brave New World Chapters 1, 2 & 3 WEEK 5 Mechanical & Organic Solidarity Durkheim, Mechanical Solidarity (Blackboard) Durkheim, Organic Solidarity (Blackboard) Huxley, A Brave New World Chapters 4 & 5 WEEK 6 Types of Authority & Bureaucracy / Deep Dystopia Weber, The Types of Authority and Imperative (Blackboard) Huxley, A Brave New World Chapters 6, 7, & 8 WEEK 7 Marxist Utopia and Dystopia Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto Huxley, A Brave New World Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13 WEEK 8 Panopticism, Internalization & the Geography of Utopia/Dystopia Foucault, Panopticism (Blackboard) Huxley, A Brave New World Chapters 14 & 15 Foucault, Of Other Spaces (Blackboard) Huxley, A Brave New World Chapters 16, 17 & 18 6

7 WEEK 9 Science Fiction & Utopia Roberts, Defining Science Fiction (Blackboard) Williams, Utopia and Science Fiction (Blackboard) AotF, Progress versus Utopia pp. 281, , Social Theory Paper Due WEEK 10 Star Trek & Imagining the Future Geraghty, Living with Star Trek (Blackboard) Pilkington, Star Trek: American Dream, Myth & Reality (Blackboard) Nemecek, Rebirth (Blackboard) AotF, Introduction AotF, Varieties of the Utopian Geraghty, Telling Tales of the Future (Blackboard) AotF, The Utopian Enclave WEEK 11 Star Trek as Utopia Tyrrell, Star Trek as Myth and Television as Mythmaker (Blackboard) Chaires, Utopia vs. Dystopia: The Quantum Mechanics of Star Trek (Blackboard) AotF, Morus: The Generic Window Wagner, Mirror, Mirror: Myth and the Human Condition (Blakboard) AotF, The Barrier of Time pp , WEEK 12 Knowing the Unknowable Wagner, This Side of Paradise: Utopian Visions (Blackboard) AotF, The Unknowability Thesis Isaacs, A Vision of a Time and Place (Blackboard) AotF, The Alien Body pp , 137, WEEK 13 Thanksgiving Be thankful - no readings, no discussions, no course work WEEK 14 Politicizing Star Trek Utopias & The Future as Irony Geraghty, A Reason to Live: Star Trek s Utopia and Social Change (Blackboard) AotF, Utopia and its Antinomies pp , , Geraghty, A Look to the Past pp (Blackboard) Geraghty, For We Must Consider (Blackboard) AotF, Synthesis, Irony, Neutralization and the Moment of Truth WEEK 15 Utopian Fear / Disruptions AotF, Journey into Fear Sections 1, 2, 4 & 5 Boyd, Cyborgs in Utopia (Blackboard) AotF, The Future as Disruption pp. 211, , 227,

8 WEEK 16 Final Final Exam Academic Honesty: Please see the college policy on academic honesty, as published in the Linfield College Course Catalog. This course adheres to all policies as explained in the Catalog. Disability Statement: Students with disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. If you are a student with a disability and feel you may require academic accommodations contact Cheri White, Program Director of Learning Support Services (LSS), as early as possible to request accommodation for your disability. The timeliness of your request will allow LSS to promptly arrange the details of your support. LSS is located in Loveridge Hall, Room 24, ( ). We also encourage students to communicate with faculty about their accommodations. 8