4-Week: Dystopian Narratives

In midst of summer weather in winter months, cost-of-living rises, and the mental illness epidemic, it’s not hard to imagine a world struggling for resources and hope. One of the strengths of literature is giving us a place to access these overwhelming subjects with nuance. We need characters’ humanity to speak to our own. While the disturbing is normalized—be it zombies, a police invasion, or a collapse in nature—readers cling to the mundane, beliefs, and relationships that help the characters through to the other side, and perhaps give us hope for the battles we face in our own lives. In this class, we'll discuss how to balance light with dark, in terms of violence, loss, grief, and desire. Defining what is normal and the catalysts that shift characters and plot forward, we’ll look at works by Cormac McCarthy, Nnedi Okorafor, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Ling Ma. Whether you have a story in mind or are starting from scratch, be ready to create.