For those of you taking my summer course, continue reading to see the preliminary syllabus, sans all the regulatory information. Also, you might want to check out my Cyberpunk Literature blog, which we will be using to post responses once the session begins later this month.

ENG 617: Studies in American Lit Since 1950

Cyberpunk

Required Texts

Storming the Reality Studio edited by Larry McCaffery
Zeitgeist by Bruce Sterling
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Tea from an Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan

Course Catalog Description

Intensive study of one or two authors or a literary movement since 1950. May be repeated as subtitle changes. (3 sem. hr.)

Additional Course Description

The genre of cyberpunk develops from the literary traditions of gothic, detective, and science fiction and h as been popularized in contemporary movies such as Blade Runner, eXistenZ, and The Matrix. Though in the past, literary studies has overlooked what it has termed “genre fiction,” contemporary English Studies has integrated science fiction into its intellectual practice, including genre-specific academic journals like Science Fiction Studies and Extrapolation. Furthermore, as this course will investigate, cyberpunk in particular has developed strong resonance with literary theory, contemporary philosophy, and cultural studies. In short, cyberpunk has emerged as an important area of literary study in contemporary literature.

This course will introduce you to four major writers of cyberpunk: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, and Pat Cadigan. We will also read and discuss key theoretical and scholarly texts that articulate cyberpunk as a site of intellectual and literary investigation. Our conversation will address both the aesthetic-literary practices of cyberpunk and its socio-cultural concerns. We will trace its stylistic development from its combination of experimental, postmodern fiction (e.g. William Burroughs) with popular crime fiction, of the pointillist with the picaresque. However we will also discuss thematic concerns that speak directly to contemporary issues: globalization, corporate ethics, postmodern politics, terrorism, and so on.

Summer sessions are brief, but intense. We will read a novel a week. Students will be asked to write informal response papers and a final researched essay. Students who are interested will have the option of presenting their research at the Central New York Conference on Language and Literature held on this campus October 29-31.

Grading

Response Papers 60% (15% each)
Final Paper 40%

Response Papers

Write a 1000-word response to each novel. Responses should make specific reference to the text and place it within the theoretical contexts established in class. Responses are due on the first day the novel is discussed.

Final Paper

Write a researched essay (4500-6000 words) on one of the novels from the course. I expect that you will consult with me regarding your topic.

Schedule

1/30 Readings from Storming the Reality Studio

7/5 Pattern Recognition
7/7 Readings from Storming the Reality Studio

7/12 Zeitgeist
7/14 Readings from Storming the Reality Studio

7/19 Cryptonomicon
7/21 Readings from Storming the Reality Studio

7/26 Tea from an Empty Cup
7/28 Discuss eXistenZ; last day of class

7/30 Final Paper due