Semester:
Fall
Offered:
2023
Professor: Christopher Pexa
TH - 9:45am to 11:45am
This course will examine contemporary writings by Native American and Indigenous authors across the genres of sci fi, horror, and fantasy, with the aim of thinking about Native American and Indigenous futures (and futurisms) more broadly, and also in ways that may exceed genre altogether. In other words, our investigation will be organized according to conventional sci fi genres of slipstream, alien contact, and apocalypse, but also to non-genre expressions of Indigenous futurity. By juxtaposing literary works from authors writing both within the boundaries of the United States and beyond, we will be able to make connections between them that highlight both their common sovereignty struggles and shared utopian visions, but also keeps in view the many meaningful differences in how Native American and Indigenous aesthetic productions perform the work of future-making.
TH - 9:45am to 11:45am
This course will examine contemporary writings by Native American and Indigenous authors across the genres of sci fi, horror, and fantasy, with the aim of thinking about Native American and Indigenous futures (and futurisms) more broadly, and also in ways that may exceed genre altogether. In other words, our investigation will be organized according to conventional sci fi genres of slipstream, alien contact, and apocalypse, but also to non-genre expressions of Indigenous futurity. By juxtaposing literary works from authors writing both within the boundaries of the United States and beyond, we will be able to make connections between them that highlight both their common sovereignty struggles and shared utopian visions, but also keeps in view the many meaningful differences in how Native American and Indigenous aesthetic productions perform the work of future-making.
Note on lottery (if course is full):
Please email the instructor (cpexa@fas.harvard.edu) a paragraph describing your interest in this course AND submit an enrollment petition in my.harvard by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, August 29. The instructor will approve or deny pending enrollment petitions by 5:00pm EST on Wednesday, August 30. Should admitted students choose not to enroll, the instructor will go to their waitlist, and be in touch with previously denied students via email with the offer to enroll.