Date & time: 2 July 2013. No regular class meeting. Instructor keeps office hours.

• in-class students may write exam in Bayou 1439 from 3-6pm) on Tuesday, 2 July. 
• Email exams any time after last meeting on 1 July; Final exams and 2nd Research Posts are due by noon Saturday 6 July.

No meeting 2 July: Instructor in office (B2529); confer, phone (281 283 3380), or email (whitec@uhcl.edu).

Relative weight: 30-40% of final grade

Two essays of 1-2 hours each (for details, scroll down)

• Essay 1: Oryx and Crake as utopian fiction (among other genres) (6-10 paragraphs?)
• Essay 2: choose one or combine 2-5 options (6-10 paragraphs?)

  • Utopia as Literature

  • Teaching Utopia

  • Personal / professional interests in subject incl. research post(s)

  • Historical utopias / experimental communities and / or history of utopian fiction and communities

  • Multicultural Utopias

Content details below. Throughout exam, references to “utopia(s)” or “utopian literature” may be understood to include dystopias, ecotopias, historical communities as convenient.

Special Requirements (for entire exam, not each question):

Title both essays.

Refer to course objectives (or parts) more than briefly—discuss, develop, question or vary. Objectives are listed with most topics. Don't feel limited to those objectives, but refer to and develop objectives with both essays.

Optional references:

Welcome to refer to outside readings and other courses anywhere, but not required, and don't let them overshadow course materials.

References to presentation texts, texts or communities encountered via discussions, fellow students' comments, presentations, posts, etc. are usually impressive.

Special Advice:

Don't hurry to email exam. When finished drafting, rest, review, edit, revise, improve unity and connectivity.

Since the course has more material before the midterm, don't hesitate to revive pre-midterm texts + discussions.

Question prompts are not checklists. Your essays establish their own premises with reference to texts and objectives.

Essay 1: Oryx and Crake as utopian fiction? (among other genres) (6-10 paragraphs?)

Objectives: 1b. What genres join with or branch from utopia? Examples: dystopia, ecotopia, Socratic dialogue, science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, novel / romance, adventure / travel narrative, journalism, tract, propaganda, satire. Others? . . .

1c. Can utopias join science fiction, speculative fiction, and allied genres in a “literature of ideas?”

• Can knowledge of utopian literature be applied to texts that are not exclusively utopian or dystopian?

1e. Utopian aesthetics: How does Utopian Fiction rebalance literature's classical purpose to entertain and educate? Is utopian / dystopian literature more interesting to talk about than to read?

Question / Assignment: Though Oryx and Crake would not necessarily be classified as a utopian or dystopian novel, how does it embody the conventions and genre-blending of these genres? How does it diverge from such conventions, and with what consequences? Compare-contrast Oryx and Crake with at least two pre-midterm texts as fiction, utopian / dystopian fiction, tract / nonfiction, etc. How does including Oryx and Crake in our seminar potentially enrich commentary on Oryx and Crake, and expand the seminar's range or applicability? What extensions from Utopian literature to literature generally?

Possible teaching prompt: What attractions / disadvantages to utopian / dystopian fiction's blend of entertainment and education, of novel and tract? How does Oryx and Crake vary these blends, with what upsides and what complications? Keep in mind: literature of ideas.

Refer to objective 1 selections above, other relevant objectives, two or more texts before midterm.

Critical Sources (from Mari's 20 June Web Review): reviews, interviews re Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake, Year of the Flood;
Hannah Wells, research post 2: Speculative Fiction: A Genre of Actuality;
notes from Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination

Relevant handouts: Standard features / conventions of utopian / dystopian literature

Relevant terms highlighted in objectives: fiction, novel, science fiction, literature of ideas, satire, entertain and educate, conventions, tract, utopian author, millennialism;

As with the midterm, prompts, objectives and terms are not a checklist but guides and / or possibilities for content. Combine materials to develop a thesis-centered essay to be judged on thematic unity, quality of content, and surface style.

Essay 2: choose one topic below or combine 2-5 topic options (6-10 paragraphs total?)

• Utopia as Literature

• Teaching Utopia

• Personal / professional interests in subject incl. research post(s)

• Historical utopias / experimental communities and / or history of utopian fiction and communities

• Multicultural Utopias

Identify which topic(s) your essay addresses, either by title, in text, or prefatory notes. Direct questions may or may not appear in the topics below. Either way, the student  combines course materials as inclined to develop a thesis-centered essay to be judged on thematic unity, quality of content, and surface style.

Utopia as Literature (Objectives 1 & 2, maybe others)
Discussion of utopias often leads to other topics: religion, history, politics, sociology, economics, gender, family—all that constitutes a society. (Interdisciplinary objective 4.) How does a Literature course keep literary considerations foremost in the study of utopias? What benefits or drawbacks? Identify, compare, and evaluate distinguishing literary or genre features of 2-3 utopian texts from our course readings. Possible approaches:

• What do you learn about literature and fiction from studying this special genre?
• How does fiction enable learning of utopian societies and thought, or about society and human nature generally? How does utopian fiction varied or expanded?
• Since utopian fiction is written mostly for social purposes, what strategies, frustrations, or rewards in keeping the "literature" aspect in sight?
• In contrast, how may Utopia's non-literary aspects appeal to non-Literature students or students lacking confidence in genre?
• Recall passages or scenes in utopian fiction that deliver literary satisfactions. Identify what may be literary as opposed to cultural or social about such pleasures.
• How does or doesn't utopian fiction measure up to the quality of literature you expect in a graduate seminar? How may these questions of literary quality be rationalized?

Standard features / conventions of utopian / dystopian literature

Teaching Utopia (Obj. 5 & others  depending on answer content)
Assignment: Evaluate the significance, worthiness, and range of utopian studies as a topic for literature courses at any educational level.

What gains and risks does the subject pose? What potential for motivating or alienating students? What positives and negatives for utopian studies in contrast to our educational & economic emphasis on heroic individualism in dystopian texts like 1984 and Anthem?

Personal & professional experiences are welcome, but return to objectives and texts for this course or for other courses, including those you may teach.

As texts for public school curricula, how successfully might utopian texts replace standard assigned dystopian texts ilike Anthem, 1984, and Brave New World? What problems or rewards?

What subjects do utopian studies open for study that are otherwise repressed or ignored?  

Personal / professional interests in subject + research post(s)

Assignment: Continue, refer to, or diverge from "special interests" passages of your midterm exam essay. Make direct references to what you previously wrote, then enlarge or extend earlier positions in relation to Oryx and Crake or other texts. (You may also continue to explicate pre-midterm texts.)

Refer to at least one of your research posts.

Relate your essay to at least one course objective (or part of one, or some combination). Evaluate and revise.

Plan or imagine a larger research project based on your research post(s) and other sources in this course or beyond.

Consider web reviews, class discussions, outside readings, other courses at any level as student or teacher.

Refer to 3 or more texts from across the semester.

Outside texts, courses, issues are all possibilities, but speak to this course's objectives, materials, and methods.

Relevant content from midterm assignment: [>text from midterm question>] 3. Highlight special interests in course (potentially involving 1^st &/or 2^nd research post)

·        What personal attraction or apprehension toward subject of utopia? How has this reaction developed?

·        What are you most interested in learning from or about this subject? Or, what aspect(s) seems most valuable? Consider in relation to your 1^st and/or 2^nd research post?

·        Relate your interests to a course objective (or part of one, or some combination of 2 or more, which may overlap w/ 2 & 3 above).

o   Analyze your interest in the objective(s) and review the seminar's discussion. (If this objective hasn't yet received much coverage, welcome to play it off what we have discussed)

o   An option here (and on the final): revise an objective or offer a new one. Relate your new objective to the existing objectives or their organization.

o   Explain and defend your emphasis and relate it back to the seminar's attractions, distractions, etc.

o   The final exam offers an option of continuing the objective-discussion.

Evaluation standards: As in most Literature courses, quality of reading and writing is the key to judging excellent work from competent work—not just reproducing data but organizing a unified, compelling essay.

"Unified": Thematic continuity and transitions are essential. Connect parts to form larger ideas. Pause between paragraphs to review what you've written or to preview what comes next. Summarize. Explain. Review and preview.

"Compelling": Exams require comprehension and expression of instructional contents. Excellence appears when students use fresh examples, insights, and expression to extend or vary what they learn. A good sign is learning as you write.

Style: At the graduate level, competence with surface issues like spelling, punctuation, and grammar is taken for granted. An occasional careless error won't kill your grade, given time pressures, but repeated or chronic errors will be remarked and factored.

Paragraph and essay organization: Expect suggestions. (Paragraph organization + transitions)

Audience: Write so someone in our seminar could recognize your terms, process your explanations, and enjoy your personal contributions and style. Future students may read your essays in our "Model Assignments." Keep instructor and assignment in sight—connect with shared objectives, terms, and texts, and "write up" in terms of organization and ambition of thought.

In-class and email exams are read separately, with different conditions factored.

Return of final exams

Receipt of your email final exam will be acknowledged by reply email, usually within a few hours.

Grade and note for your final exam will be emailed individually, usually within a week after deadline, as part of final grade report (which will also include grade and note for 2nd research post).