inadequate futures

engl 288 - spring 2017

engl 288: human @ the limit Spring 2017

Required Texts

  • Coetzee, The Lives of Animals [978-0691070896 or 978-0691173900]
  • Danielewski, The Familiar Vol 1: One Rainy Day in May [978-0375714948]
  • Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go [978-1400078776]
  • Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest [978-0918273826]

Date: Reading:
week 1: introduction
1/17 Tuesday Course Intro, Gallop, ‘The Ethics of Close Reading,’ Spahr, 'Some of We and the Land That Was Never Ours'
1/19 Thursday Stokes, 'No, You're Not Entitled to Your Opinion,' Braidotti, The Posthuman, Intro & Ch 1
week 2: into the rain forest
1/24 Tuesday Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest pt. 1-2
1/26 Thursday Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest pt. 3-4
week 3: rain forest/cities
1/31 Tuesday Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest pt. 5-6
2/2 Thursday Levins Morales, 'Nadie la tiene: Land, Ecology and Nationalism,' Grosz, 'Bodies-Cities'
week 4: you, me, and everyone we know
2/7 Tuesday Horning, 'Me Meme,' Serpell, 'The Book of Faces'
2/9 Thursday Jurgenson, 'The Disconnectionists,' Black Mirror, 'Nosedive'
week 5: hopeless animals and nature's end
2/14 Tuesday Danielewski, The Familiar p. 1-81, Danielewski, 'Parable #9: The Hopeless Animal and the End of Nature'
2/16 Thursday Danielewski, The Familiar p. 82-235
week 6: the (un)familiar
2/21 Tuesday Danielewski, The Familiar p. 236-418, Lennard Interviews Wolfe, 'Is Humanism Really Humane?'
2/23 Thursday Danielewski, The Familiar p. 419-562
week 7: more uncanniness
2/28 Tuesday Danielewski, The Familiar p. 563-772
3/2 Thursday Danielewski, The Familiar p. 773-880 [optional: Douglass, Lazzara, Shoemaker, & Raley, 'The Unfamiliar']
week 8: spring break
3/7 Tuesday spring break
3/9 Thursday spring break
week 9: the animal that therefore [we are]
3/14 Tuesday Coetzee, The Lives of Animals, 'The Philosophers and the Animals' [optional: Derrida, 'The Animal That Therefore I am' (we'll look at excerpts in class)]
3/16 Thursday Coetzee, The Lives of Animals, 'The Poets and the Animals,' Smuts's Response
week 10: w(h)ither humans
3/21 Tuesday Arrival
3/23 Thursday Butler, 'Bloodchild'
week 11:
3/28 Tuesday Haraway, 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs'
3/30 Thursday Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, ch. 1-4
week 12:
4/4 Tuesday Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, ch. 5-13, Butler, 'Violence, Mourning, Politics'
4/6 Thursday Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, ch. 14-18
week 13:
4/11 Tuesday Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, ch. 19-23, [optional: Getman, 'Daft Punks']
4/13 Thursday Excerpts from The Animatrix
week 14:
4/18 Tuesday ExMachina
4/20 Thursday Westworld, 'The Original,' 'Chestnut' [optional: 'The Stray']
week 15:
4/25 Tuesday Westworld, 'Dissonance Theory,' 'The Adversary,' 'Trompe L'Oeil' [optional: 'Contrapasso']
4/27 Thursday Westworld, 'The Well-Tempered Clavier,' 'The Bicameral Mind,' Sparh, 'Some of We and the Land That Was Never Ours' [optional: Westworld, 'Trace Decay']