How Can Fiction Change the World? Socio-Cultural Values & Storytelling
Course description:
How can storytelling challenge the world around us?
In this course, we’ll explore how contemporary fiction engages with pressing socio-cultural issues, questioning the responsibilities writers may have to the societies they depict. Reading works such as This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila, Babel by R. F. Kuang, and Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, we’ll dive into themes of identity, representation, and social justice, analyzing how fiction can reveal and critique cultural norms in ways that nonfiction or political discourse often cannot. Through discussion, reflective assignments, creative projects, and engaging with theoretical frameworks, students will examine their own roles as readers and writers within society, developing skills to analyze literature critically and create compelling, meaningful fiction.