Welcome!

Welcome ENG 566 students!

Here is a short trailer for Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. I encourage you to watch the movie after having read the book. Post a comment telling of your reaction to the movie. Did you like it? Which character's story struck you the most?

Is Kindred really Science fiction?

Do you feel that Kindred should be classified as science fiction or fantasy? A Writer's Digest book I have defines science fiction as "literature involving elements of science and technology as a basis for conflict, or as a setting for a story." Usually, too, science fiction is set in some futuristic world. However, fantasy is usually about a "fanciful, invented world," so Kindred doesn't qualify as pure fantasy either. (The Norton Anthology labels the work "fantasy" in one place [2515] and "science fiction" in another [2135]). Orwell's 1984 is about time travel, too (the reader's, not the narrator's), but the focus is on social problems, not science and technology. Time travel alone doesn't make a book science fiction. Like Orwell's book, Kindred uses time-travel as a pretext for revealing social/political issues. Butler herself classified her novel as "grim fantasy" with "no science in it" ("Reader's Guide" 269); so it is not science fiction, like her other "futuristic novels" with "mutants or extrasolar aliens" (268). Additionally, Kindred contains the supernatural or paranormal: Dana seems to have a sort of telepathy about Rufus's danger which triggers her being transported. Thoughts?

Woman Hollering Creek

http://www.sandracisneros.com/

Browse this webpage for Sandra Cisneros, author of Woman Hollering Creek.

Post a comment to this post on what you found most interesting about the author. Have you read any of her other works?

Reading List

Hello class!

Our first title we will be reading is Kindred by Octavia Butler. This work combines present day with antembellum in a unique reimagining that is part science-fiction and part historical. Please read chapters 1-3 and post your reactions/thoughts and comment on two of your classmate's posts.