2014-15 Grad Course Proposal: Steampunk: Alternative Histories of the Nineteenth Century

Utopian flying machines, France, 1890-1900 (chromolithograph trading card). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In an April 1987 letter to the science fiction magazine Locus, K.W. Jeter defines “steampunks” as a “collective term” to identify “Victorian fantasies” done in the “gonzo-historical manner” and featuring “technology of that era.” Today steampunk is used to describe everything from YA fantasy novels with airships and steam-powered cyborgs to the corsets and goggles worn by fans at conventions like TeslaCon and Steamcon, giant mechanical engines unleashed at Burning Man, and music from acts like The Men that Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing and Professor Elemental. This course will focus primarily on the connection between the literature and material culture of steampunk by surveying the genre’s roots in Victorian science fiction from writers like Mary Shelley and George Griffith before moving to a selection of more contemporary fiction by steampunk authors and a consideration of the emergent steampunk maker culture. We will also consider the cultural and scholarly value of steampunk’s construction of alternative or “alt-historicism,” defined by Trevor Owens as the idea that the history is “contingent” rather than inevitable.

Given the centrality of the object-work performed by steampunk fans, I will give you the option of replacing an 18-20 page final research paper with constructing some kind of steampunk design object or online digital project. This follows what Matt Ratto has called “critical making:” the construction of a made-object that reflects a critically-informed, research-oriented engagement with the steampunk genre. The assignment sequence includes a prospectus, mid-term presentation, a final made-object or digital project, and a 10-page critical introduction to your object. I will also ask for frequent engagement with social media and in-class participation.

Primary Sources

• Karina Cooper, Tarnished: The St. Croix Chronicles. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.
• Cail Garriger, Soulless. New York: Hatchette Book Group, 2009.
• Felix Gilman, The Half-Made World. New York: Tor Book, 2010.
• China Mieville, Railsea. New York: Del Ray Books, 2012.
• China Mieville, “Jack.” Looking for Jake and Other Stories. New York: Del Ray Books, 2005.
• Michael Moorcock, The Warlord of the Air. London: Titan Books, 2013.
• Mary Shelley, The Last Man. Peterborough, Broadview, 1996
• Scott Westerfield, Leviathan. New York: Simon Pulse, 2009.

Secondary Sources

• Lauren Cameron, “Mary Shelley’s Malthusian Objections in The Last Man.” Nineteenth-Century Literature. 67.2 (2012): 177-203.
• Brian Croxall and Rachel Bowser, “Industrial Evolution.” Neo-Victorian Studies. 1-45.
• Lisa Hager, “Cags and Corsets: Steampunk as Reading Practice and Women’s Cross-Class Sexuality.” Like Clockwork: Essays on Steampunk.
• Frederic Jameson, “Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?” Science Fiction Studies. 9.2. (1982): 147-58.
• Henry Jenkins, “The Tomorrow that Never Was: Retrofuturism in the Comics of Dean Motter.” Henryjenkins.com.
• China Mieville, “Weird Fiction.” The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Ed. Mark Bould, Andrew Butler, Adam Roberts, Sheryl Vint. London: Routledge, 2009. 510-515.
• Rebecca Onion, “Reclaiming the Machine: An Introductory Look at Steampunk in Everyday Practice.” Neo-Victorian Studies. 1.1 (Autumn 2008). 138-63.
• Mike Pershon, “Useful Troublemakers: Social Retrofuturism in the Steampunk Novels of Cail Garriger and Cherie Priest.” Steaming into a Victorian Future. Ed. Julie Anne Taddeo and Cynthia J. Miller. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2013. 21-43.
• Diana Pho and Jaymee Goh. “Steampunk: Stylish Subversion and Colonial Chic.” Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style. Ed. Shira Tarrant and Marjorie Jolles. Albany: SUNY Press, 2012. 191-208.
• Joshua Tanenbaum, Karen Tanenbuam, and Ron Wakkery. “Steampunk as Design Fiction.” CHI 2012. May 15, 2012. 1583-1592.
• Joshua Tanenbaum, Audrey Desjardins, and Karen Tanenbaum. “Steampunking Interaction Design.” Interactions. XX.3 (May/June 2013), 28.
• Joseph Weakland and Shaun Duke, “Changing the Subject: Subversive Technological Histories in Steampunk Fiction.” Like Clockwork: Essays on Steampunk.