Course description

In the several decades before and following the invention of heavier-than-air flight, distinctive genres of fiction emerged and flourished in response to the new technological era: aeronautic adventure (those brave men and women in their flying machines!); aeronautic horror (something unpleasant waits for us up above); and subaerine horror (sometimes it comes down here). With the beginning of the modern space age in the 1940s, aerial fiction shifted outward to more distant fields, and the imaginative literature of the upper atmosphere lapsed into obscurity. This course will survey fiction and nonfiction of the early aerial age with the aim of documenting and understanding this exemplary case of the influence of technological change on the rise and evolution of literary genres.

We will read short texts on the history of modern aviation; short and long American and British science fiction, including pulp fiction from the Gernsback era of American SF; nonfiction texts on the 1896–97 and 1909–1913 “airship waves,” considered the first modern UFO “flaps”; and texts from the late 20th century literature of “critters” and “rods” – a curious resurgence of earlier atmospheric fantasies, in which anomalous phenomena are purported to be evidence of undocumented lifeforms. (Hic sunt dracones: here there are dragons; the skies are full of them.) Our philosophical guide to these realms will be the great American anomalist Charles Hoy Fort, whose writings (we will read The Book of the Damned, New Lands and portions of Lo!) are among the most engaging studies of the early 20th century aerial imaginary.

Written course requirements include unscheduled in-class reading quizzes and three short take-home exams.

Course syllabus

The course syllabus, including the calendar of readings, assignments, and other course requirements, may be downloaded in .pdf format from this link:

  LIT 3313, Fall 2009 (approx. 224K)

Other resources

As the semester progresses, I will post information about texts or resources discussed in class, but not among the assigned readings, to an “Other resources” web page, at <http://www.english.ufl.edu/~tharpold/courses/fall09/lit3313/resources.html>. You should review this page from time to time for suggestions regarding supplemental readings, pointers to online research materials, etc.

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