ENG 311 - Advanced Speculative Fiction Writing

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement AR.
Prerequisite(s): ENG 220 Introduction to Speculative Fiction Writing
This course is an Advanced Creative Writing Workshop in Speculative Fiction, fiction in which some element goes beyond the real, is supernatural, futuristic, fairytale-esque, and/or weird. Speculative fiction borrows from and combines the tactics of both literary fiction and genres such as magic realism, horror, fantasy, dystopian fiction, and science fiction. Speculative fiction poses fundamental questions about morality and the purpose of human existence. And you will explore—through your own attempts at writing speculative stories and workshopping the work of your peers—why and how speculative fiction frequently mirrors—albeit oddly— our deepest insights, desires, hopes, and fears. The goal of this course is to introduce you to some foundational and contemporary speculative storytelling, to immerse you in a writing practice, and inspire you to write fiction that breaks molds and ventures weirdness, while also attending to the deeper psychic, emotional, political, cultural, and artistic resonances of a piece. Satisfies the Departmental Prose requirement.