HEN 105 - HNR HUM Introduction to Literature: Utopian and Dystopian Literature

4.00 credits.

(Humanities Core Course - Honors)
An introduction to narratives about utopian (ideal) and dystopian (horrific) societies. The reading includes religious descriptions of paradise, fictional and nonfictional utopian experiments in the New World (El Dorado, Fruitlands, Walden, Herland), and dark accounts of societies gone very wrong (1984, The Handmaid’s Tale). Important questions include what makes a good society and whether gender, race/ethnicity, and class shape utopian visions and dystopian fears. This course does not count toward the English major/minor.