As I mentioned in an earlier post, I teach English, mostly composition,
but sometimes literature class; my favorite class to teach was under the
category Society and Literature. I was able to design the class, choose
the texts, and teach it my way. So I created a class called
"Alternative Visions" which dealt with a variety of ways to view
humanity and the possiblities of ways to live. I included: The
Handmaid's Tale, Woman on the Edge of Time, 1984, Left Hand of Darkness,
Herland, and Utopia. The class was exciting and fun plus students
really became involved in thinking about issues of power and authority,
class, wealth, sense of self, relationships between self and society.
I think many professors are very much stuck in old ways of teaching and
perhaps they do not read sf & f--and if they don't read the literature
and they are afraid or too lazy to experiment then they are not going to
use it in classes. And I believe many don't even know what sf is--their
perceptions are shaped by the "b" rated movies professing to be sf but
which in reality are rehashed "cowboys and indians" fighting to the
finish.
Bonnie Gray wrote:
> This is something that has always puzzled me... why "popular"
> literary forms are not considered worthy of study by some
> academics. It seems that science fiction, mystery, etc. could
> be interesting to study partly because they are "popular" forms,
> and can say a lot about current culture.
>
> Of course, I'm a scientist who hasn't been in an English class
> for over five years :) Anybody who knows about these things: what
> do you think?
>
> Bonnie
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