Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Part 3: The Realm of Speculative Fiction

Building on the key concepts explored in Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy parts 1 & 2, this course will further develop students’ understanding of some of the most influential science fiction (SF) and fantasy writers to date who come under the bracket of Speculative Fiction.

The umbrella genre of Speculative Fiction is characterised by a pull away from realism exploring fantastical, futuristic, supernatural, or other imaginative realms that propose possible futures.

You will consider what makes a text fall into the bracket of Speculative Fiction rather than simply joining the ranks of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and explore why writers such as Margaret Atwood have fought to have their works come under the genre of Speculative Fiction.

We will examine how writers explore speculative topics such as climate change, alien invasion, posthumanism, genetic engineering, and AI.

Over the ten weeks, you will write their own speculative stories exploring the importance of character, narrator, worldbuilding, and plot.

You will examine the variety of ways in which Speculative Fiction explores contemporary ideas of who we are, how we connect to our environment, and how we respond to otherness. You will explore these questions through the process of creative writing.

Learning and teaching

This module will be offered online.

There will be two-hour meetings once a week (20 contact hours in all) which will include discussions, exercises, craft lectures, and workshops.

Learners will be encouraged to read the texts introduced, complete the weekly writing exercises, and obtain feedback from the tutor and other members of the group.

Learning Central & Teams will contain relevant links to resources, class handouts, and PowerPoint presentations

Syllabus content:

You will explore the following key issues and themes:

• The difference between Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction
• How to avoid boring exposition and infodumps
• How to combine world building with characters and plot
• How to reveal world details dramatically through actions and reactions
• Identity, time, alterity, consciousness, the human, the posthuman, the alien, counter-factual history, virtual reality, and simulation
• Authors explored will include Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kim Stanley Robinson and Aldous Huxley.

Coursework and assessment

To award credits we need to have evidence of the knowledge and skills you have gained or improved.

Some of this has to be in a form that can be shown to external examiners so that we can be absolutely sure that standards are met across all courses and subjects.

The most important element of assessment is that it should enhance your learning.

Our methods are designed to increase your confidence and we try very hard to devise ways of assessing you that are enjoyable and suitable for adults with busy lives.

You will complete a short piece of analytical writing in which you will define Speculative Fiction drawing on literary and TV/film examples (400 words), and a portfolio of Speculative writing (1600 words) consisting of your best work produced on the module.

This portfolio may consist of several separate creative pieces or one piece of extended writing, by prior agreement with the tutor.

Reading suggestions

Literary Texts

• Kazuo Ishiguro, Clara and the Sun (2021)
• Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003)
• Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem (2006) Book & TV show
• William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future (2020)
• Neal Schusterman & Jarod Schusterman, Dry (2018), Book & film
• Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End (1953)
• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World TV adaptation (2020)
• Humans TV show (2015 – 2018)
• The Age of Stupid (2009) Film

Background Reading

• Alexis Lothian, Old Futures Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility (2019)
• Natalie M. Rosinsky, Feminist Futures: Contemporary women’s speculative fiction (1984)
• Sherryle Vint & Sümeyra Buran (eds), Technologies of Feminist Speculative Fiction: Gender, Artificial Life, and the Politics of Reproduction (2022)
• John, L. Hennessey, History and Speculative Fiction (1986)
• Paul Lee Thomas, Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction: Challenging Genres (1961)
• Tomas Vergara, Alterity and Capitalism in Speculative Fiction: Estranging Contemporary History (2023)
• Janet Sayers, Lydia Martin & Emma Bell, Posthuman Affirmative Business Ethics: Reimagining Human-Animal Relations Through Speculative Fiction (2022)
• Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: the Reinvention of Nature (1991)
• N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics (1999)
• Margaret Atwood, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (2011)

Library and computing facilities

As a student on this course you are entitled to join and use the University’s library and computing facilities. Find out more about using these facilities.

Accessibility

Our aim is access for all. We aim to provide a confidential advice and support service for any student with a long term medical condition, disability or specific learning difficulty. We are able to offer one-to-one advice about disability, pre-enrolment visits, liaison with tutors and co-ordinating lecturers, material in alternative formats, arrangements for accessible courses, assessment arrangements, loan equipment and dyslexia screening.