Why are we experiencing a prolonged cultural moment so permeated with dystopian, post-apocalyptic themesand why do many works with these themes feature and target teenagers High-concept dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels have flooded the young adult market, while literary novelists writing for adults (Atwood, Mitchell, McCarthy, Ishiguro) spin similar stories. In this seminar, we will write and think broadly about genre boundaries and narrative structure, child and teenage readers, communal responses to disaster and trauma, utopian and dystopian rhetoric, the roles of speculative fiction in our culture, and the development of the notion of adolescence in America. Well explore what elements of the idea of the American teenager survive in books that narrate the dissolution of America or its aftermath, for comparison, well also read several books set in post-apocalyptic or dystopian Britain, examine a Japanese film with interesting similarities to the popular Hunger Games series, and consider Duncan Jones's Moon as a different sort of dystopian coming-of-age story. Some shorter texts will be available on Laulima.<br><br>Texts and required materials<br><br>The books for this class will be available at Revolution Books:<br>The Giver, Lois Lowry<br>Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban<br>The Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler<br>Feed, M. T. Anderson<br>How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff<br>Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro<br>Well also watch two films Koushun Takami's Battle Royale and Duncan Jones's Moonlisten to some of Feed in audiobook form, and read additional essays, including works by Rebecca Solnit and James Berger.<br>Assignments (tentative, subject to change)<br><br>4 critical methods assignments (1-2 pp.)<br>1 short close reading paper (3-4 pp.)<br>Midterm exam<br>Final exam<br>Small group presentation on selected text<br>Reading quizzes<br>Participation, including peer review