This course is interested in exploring representations of different imaginations of “community,” “coalition” and “belonging” through primarily what China Miéville calls, “Weird Fiction.” Drawing mostly from works often categorized as fantastical, speculative or estranging fiction, this class considers how these texts differently imagine forms of “coalition” and “community.” We will follow how these writers of “weird fiction” conceptualize and imagine “community” with special attention to how forms of inequality and categories of race, gender, class and sexuality are differently represented and negotiated within various models of “coalition.” As a “W” course, students will take class themes, in class writing assignments, and ideas that emerge in class discussion, and produce several short papers, a “prospectus,” and 2 drafts of a 5-7 page paper in order to more deeply explore the animating questions of this course. Students will also have the opportunity to practice multiple kinds of revision including meeting with me in conferences and peer-review.

Possible texts include: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower; Cynthia Kadohata’s In the Heart of the Valley of Love; Ana Castillo’s So Far from God; Danzy Senna’s Caucasia; Alice Walker’s Meridian; Gloria Naylor’s Bailey’s Cafe; and Paul Beatty’s White Boy Shuffle.