December 23, 2023: Spring Semester Previews

[For myannual Fall semester reflections series, I wanted to share some of the newtexts and ideas I encountered this semester. Leading up to this preview postfeaturing a few of the things I’m excited for in Spring 2024!]

On threeSpring 2024 courses for which I’m particularly excited (even if I’m really notready yet for it to be 2024).

1)     Introto Sci Fi and Fantasy: Usually I get to teach this course every few years,but as that Spring 2023 reflections poet indicates, this will be the secondstraight Spring semester in which I’ve taught Sci Fi/Fantasy. As a result Iwanted to make sure to keep it fresh by including at least one book I haven’ttaught before (alongside the one I added in Spring 2023 and wrote about in thatpost, Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch),and so chose a new work for the contemporary sci fi novel: Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, AngryPlanet (2014). Chambers’ novel should make for a really interestingpairing with our foundational sci fi text, Ray Bradbury’s TheMartian Chronicles, but is also just a quirky and funny and thoughtfulexample of where sci fi storytelling has gone in recent years. Can’t wait toshare it with students!

2)     TheShort Story Online: As that post illustrates, I first taught an acceleratedonline course in the Spring 2019 semester, and this Spring will do so for the fifthtime with another section of the same class, The Short Story. It would be veryeasy to simply teach the same syllabus and readings I’ve done in those priorsections, and I’m not going to pretend I’m entirely reinventing the wheel (andit does still roll quite smoothly, I’d say). But this time around I did want tofind ways to bring in even more stories that feel relevant to our currentmoment, and so I’ll be slotting in one of my couple favorite American shortstories, Sui Sin Far’s “Inthe Land of the Free” (1912). I don’t know of any literary work that bettercaptures the human stakes of things like elections and lawsthan does Far’s, and as ever I know it will draw out thoughtful andimpressive student responses.

3)     GradHistorical Fiction: As you can see from that Fall 2023 preview post, Ioriginally thought I’d be teaching my Graduate American Historical Fictioncourse this semester; it got pushed back to Spring 2024, and so everything Isaid in that post still applies to this preview! But to reiterate what I saidin number 2, I’m now particularly excited to be reading and discussing theseworks in an election year, where the stakes of these histories and issues andAmerican ideas have never been clearer. That’s especially true for my favorite Americannovel, Charles Chesnutt’s TheMarrow of Tradition (1901); but every book we read in this class has agreat deal to tell us about not only historical fiction and history, but aboutcollective memory and contemporary debates and more. Can’t wait to see how our awesomegrad students respond to them!

Holidayseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatare you looking forward to in 2024?