ENGL 481/570 (Section 001, Schedule #29172/29352)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Spring 2013
TR 12:30-1:45pm :: 327 Hibbs
Prof. David Golumbia
Office: 324D Hibbs Hall
Spring 2013 Office Hours: Tues 2-4pm

Genres: Hard Science Fiction

Final Paper Assignment

The assignment is to write a short analytical essay (2500 words for undergrads; 4000 words for graduate students: note that these are lower word counts than indicated on the original course syallbus; there is no penalty for writing longer than these limits, within reason) on one of the topics listed below. Final paper due in my English Dept mailbox (Hibbs Hall), or via email, by 3:50pm, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. You may submit the paper on paper or via email to me at dgolumbia@vcu.edu.

Please use your word processor to count the number of words. An English paper should include quotations from the work you are analyzing, and short quotations DO count toward the total word count for the essay. Long quotations (of 50 or more words) should not generally be counted toward the total word count for the assignment.

This is not a research paper, and you are not expected to consult outside sources except for the primary book or piece of media you choose to interpret. Any sources, including that primary source, should be properly cited in your paper, using any acceptable bibliographic citation format. One very simple format is to use a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper, and indicate by author, work and page number in parentheses the exact quotations within the paper itself. Other standard forms of citation (such as footnotes) are also acceptable, but failing to properly indicate sources technically constitutes plagiarism.

All work for this assignment and the rest of this course is expected to be your own, and should not include elements from other sources (such as online commentaries on the works you write about), unless you also put them in quotation marks and clearly indicate your sources as described above.

Your essay should address one of the following questions. In general, you should work to develop your own argument, one independent of specific points or analyses raised during class discussion. It's OK and probably unavoidable to reflect some of what we talk about in class, but in general you should do your best to develop an independent topic that shows of your own reasoning.

For all of these papers, you are welcome to write on any aspect of any book or film on the course syllabus from an analytical perspective--you are welcome to use material that we have not studied yet as well as the material we have already covered in class. You should also feel free to use one of the auxiliary texts on which students have done (or will be doing) oral presentations. You may choose texts not on the syllabus at all, but please check with me via email before making your selection.

1. Open topic. You may closely analyze the themes, form, or ideas of any of the works on the syllabus or on the auxiliary text list, either by themselves or in comparison. It is probably wise not to compare more than 2 books or films.
2. Compare the views of religion offered in two books or films. Why is it important or relevant to science fiction that takes science seriously to include reflections on religion?
3. Discuss the adaptation of a novel into a film. Why are the specifc changes made? How is the meaning of the narratives changed? You may choose in this case to compare two different cases (e.g., both Roadside Picnic into Stalker and Do Androids Dream... into Blade Runner).
4. Discuss the ideas of "transhumanism," "the posthuman," and/or "the Singularity," and explore how these ideas play out in two different narratives (you may want to choose one of the works from our auxiliary reading texts as well as one of the main texts for this assignment).
5. Compare the quest narrative in Roadside Picnic with the quest in Stalker. What are Red and the Stalker searching for in each, and how does the meaning of each narraitve change because of the differences?
6. Compare the use of different points of view in two of the books or films. How is the substance of the narrative affected by the way the narration is presented to the reader/viewer?
7. Discuss what it means to be "alien" in two of the books or films, and what this means about being "human." You may want to connect this to issues of gender, race, or culture in the narratives, especially among the human characters.
8. Discuss what it means to call one or two of these narratives "hard science fiction." Where do the narratives rely on "plausible" science? What elements are outside the realms of anything scientifically plausible? You should not just catalog "plausible" and "implausible," but use this issue to generate analyses of the meanings of the narratives.

Last updated April 18, 2013.