Reanimating Hope: Teaching Science Fictional World Building in Uncertain Times

Abstract

Narratives of (self-)destruction have come to dominate both fictional storytelling and news output, with climate change and environmental degradation contributing to largely bleak visions of future possibility. While dystopias offer clear depictions of the consequences of negative present action (Paik, 2010) and science fiction can be structurally generative for present critique (Sullivan III, 1999; Thomas, 2013), overarching narratives of large-scale destruction can also have the unintended effect of perpetuating hopelessness and helplessness (Rubin, 2012). Often without traditional conceptions of political power, youth are disproportionately impacted by this phenomena. In response to this, I conducted a collaborative, participatory action research-oriented ethnography in an alternative secondary English classroom where science fictional genre exploration and world building were mobilized as a way to explore possible futures beyond the dystopia/utopia binary. In this paper, I will consider in particular the creative output of a student-led collaborative world building project which used digital storytelling tools (Hergenrader, 2017) to imagine Toronto in 2049. Focusing on students’ engagement with aspects of society and culture, I will analyze their collaborative work through the lenses of radical democracy (Biesta, 2011; Rancière, 1998) and genre-specific critical theory (Csicsery-Ronay Jr., 2008; Freedman, 2000), and will examine students’ own imaginaries to consider how science fictional world building (Tuttle, 2005; Wolfe, 2016) might operate as a platform through which students can envision radical change, and hope can be ‘reanimated’ in a culture inundated with images of its own demise. While a large portion of related research focuses on student engagement with science fiction texts (Mendelsohn, 2009; Sawyer & Wright, 2011), in this paper I will explore how working through the creative processes of science fictional storytelling can help students imagine both ‘big picture’ possibility, and the possible minutiae of daily life beyond, or perhaps in the midst of, potential and uncertain calamity.