We assume that all fiction is, indeed, a form of speculation therefore, in this reading group, we are particularly interested in the politics of such speculation and the forms that it can take. The umbrella term speculative fiction includes science fiction, utopian/dystopian fiction, feminist fiction and numerous other genres and writing modes. We think of speculative fiction as a mode of creating which not only focuses on science, technology and futurism but one that is also experimental, unfamiliar, posthuman.

We propose to engage with the concept of modernity and of the future through speculation. Human beings try to adapt to (anthropogenic) “slow violence” by adopting all kinds of future scenarios driven by dominant ideas on modernity, informed, mostly, by advances in science and technology which generally display AI generated/controlled worlds, climate apocalypses and geoengineering in an increasingly technocratic Global North. But forms do speculative fictions about the future that are liberatory, decolonial and sustainable take? What about past and peripheral imaginations of the future? What imaginations of the future envision less ‘futuristic ’futures for both (human) animals and the planet?

Since ‘modernity’, ‘human beings’ and ‘environment’ are dynamic and plural notions, they need to be investigated critically, especially in a context in which neoliberal capitalism and techno-utopianism combine to create mostly conservative futuristic solutions that reproduce Western, patriarchal and anthropocentric worldviews. 

These worldviews (re)produce an essentially monolithic idea of the future through linear notions of time and progress and extractivist and expansionist conceptions of space (conceptions that are more and more projected in another space to be conquered and claimed for nation states and megacorporations, such as the outer space and the deep seas). We want to study how speculative fictions from literature, film and other art forms employ a strategy of indirection to think through visions of the future that interrogate constructed identities and the gendered, racialized, and speciesist elements of our contemporary world. 

In these seminar sessions we are also interested in diversifying our library by reading fiction works across languages and critical theory. In these seminars we would also like to explore the boundaries and porosities of (non) European texts and Western epistemologies in relation to transnational languages and transcultural texts.

PARTICIPANTS. This seminar is open to academics, MA students, PhD candidates and postdocs with an interest in deepening knowledge on speculative fiction as it relates to contemporary issues and in the theoretical frameworks that help us rethink that relationship. If you are interested in joining, please send us an email beforehand.

TOPICS. In our meetings we are interested in discussing topics such as the following:

• Forms/genres/modes of speculative fiction
• Indigenous narratives & decolonial theory 
• Stories and theory of science and technology (i.e. food, architectures, engineering)
• Eco and Feminist utopias/dystopias
• Geo-narratives
• Narratives that redraw the boundaries of time and space
• Multilingual narratives and/in translation

WORK PLAN AND SCHEDULE

Sessions in Semester 2, 2025 will take place on the following Wednesdays from 15 to 17 hrs. (Rooms tba)

12 February       PCHooft, room 308

12 March            PCHooft, room 308

16 April                 PCHooft, room 4.22

14 May                PCHooft, room 4.22

18 June                PCHooft, room 3.08