Octavia Butler is a pioneer of modern science fiction. She was creating and making space for herself in the genre at a time when it was deeply unwelcoming to Black writers. Despite this, her works and ideas have exerted massive influence on a host of writers as well as social justice organizers — that is, on our ability to imagine alternative futures. In this class we will study her novels and short stories, engage with the literary and social organizing theories that her works have spawned, and check out a few writers and thinkers she has influenced. Texts by Butler may include Blood Child and Other Stories, Parable of the Sower, Wild Seed, and Kindred.

Offered Fall 2023