Rhetoric 121A
Rhetoric of Fiction
“Biopunk and the Bioethical Imaginary”
Fall 2006
Tuesdays, Thursdays, 5.00-6.30, 242 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Dale Carrico, dalec@berkeley.edu; dcarrico@sfai.edu
Office Hours: Before and after class and by appointment. 7404 Dwinelle Hall
Course Blog: http://interpretatio.blogspot.com
Course Description
"Biopunk" is a fledgling genre of speculative fiction taking up many of the characteristic themes and gestures of cyberpunk literature but reinvigorating them through a focus on the emerging pleasures and dangers of genetic science and medicine, bioinformatics, biotechnology, and biowarfare. In this course we will explore some of the provocative and unsettling connections between the wild insurgent speculation of biopunk fictions and the presumably more staid and conservative discourses of corporate futurism and bioethical policy making. How do the curious conversations, wary resistances, and imaginative interdependencies between these textual modes produce the argumentative resources available to each?
Course Requirements
Bruce Sterling, Holy Fire
Octavia Butler, Fledgling
Katsuhiro Otomo; dir., Roujin Z
Greg Bear, “Blood Music”
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Paul di Filippo, Ribofunk
Octavia Butler, Lilith’s Brood
Rudy Rucker, Frek and the Elixer
Your final grade will be based on the following:
Attendance/Participation/Quizzes: 30%
Three short papers, approximately 3pp. each, posted to this Blog: 40%
Final Examination: 30%
Schedule of Meetings
Week One
Tuesday, August 29, Administrative Issues
Thursday, August 31, Personal Introductions
Week Two
Tuesday, September 5, Sterling
Thursday, September 7, Sterling
Week Three
Tuesday, September 12, Sterling
Thursday, September 13, Sterling
First Blog Post Should Be Published By Now
Week Four
Tuesday, September 19, Butler
Thursday, September 21, Butler
Week Five
Tuesday, September 26, Butler
Thursday, September 28, Butler
Week Six
Tuesday, October 3, Otomo
Thursday, October 5, Otomo
Week Seven
Tuesday, October 10, Otomo
Thursday, October 12, Bear
Week Eight
Tuesday, October 17, Atwood
Thursday, October 19, Atwood
Week Nine
Tuesday, October 24, Atwood
Thursday, October 26, Atwood
Second Blog Post Should Be Published By Now
Week Ten
Tuesday, October 31, di Filippo
Thursday, November 2, di Filippo
Week Eleven
Tuesday, November 7, Butler
Thursday, November 9, Butler
Week Twelve
Tuesday, November 14, Butler
Thursday, November 16, Butler
Week Thirteen
Tuesday, November 21, Butler
Thursday, November 23, Academic and Administrative Holiday
Week Fourteen
Tuesday, November 28, Butler
Thursday, November 30, Rucker
Third Blog Post Should Be Published By Now
Week Fifteen
Tuesday, December 5, Rucker
Thursday, December 7, Rucker
Take-Home Final Examination to Be Handed In-Class on Final Meeting
