CompLit 131 - Brave New Worlds

Brave New Worlds, also known as Comparative Literature 131, is an introductory survey course of dystopian fiction. It is often taught by David Lenson.

The course as taught by David Lenson involves reading about one novel a week and the writing of two papers. For the final paper, Lenson has been known to accept epic poetry, sculpture, and performance art in lieu of an essay, as long as the student gets prior approval.

Audio recordings of lectures given by David Lenson for this course in Fall 2004 are available here.

[edit] Reading

As of Fall 2004, some of the books surveyed by the course included:

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner
• The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
• Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor
• Teacher by ???
• Property by Valerie Martin
• The Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thi diem thúy who lived in Northampton and gave a wonderful presentation (mp3) (ogg) to the class
• The Translator by John Crowley, also a local author
• Island by Aldous Huxley