First Year Seminar IB 20: THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
Outline
This seminar will read and discuss Philip K. Dick’s novel ‘The Man in the HighCastle’ (1962). This should be a fruitful text for the discussion of post-war/cold war science fiction, history and alternate history (Fr. uchronie), the post-WW2 critique in the US and of either (depending on your viewpoint) the limitless imagination or the pathetic delusions of Dick himself.
The required text is the novel itself but Emmanuel Carrère’s biography ‘I Am Alive and You Are Dead’ (Phil was one of those pudgy, brooding boys who grow up to become chess champions…) will be an important background source.
One recurring theme in this seminar is likely to be the nature of truth in fiction and in history, but there will be many more and we shall explore them by any useful means. The course ought to help you develop academic skills that you will need at Waseda and later, such as oral and written presentation. Note that this seminar will probably suit students of higher English ability.
Syllabus
Each week students will read sections of the novel and answer a worksheet which will provide a framework for class discussion.
Not required but STRONGLY recommended for background:
I am Alive and You are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick by Emmanuel Carrère (Picador USA, 1993, 2005).
Several copies will be held at the Waseda Co-op and there is a copy in the Student Reading Room at SILS. Not required but useful alternate history novels: Fatherland by Robert Harris; The Iron
Dream by Norman Spinrad; The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.
Grading Students need to complete weekly worksheets and submit a final essay. Assessment is based on attendance, participation in class discussions and performance in regular assignments, written in English, along these lines: attendance and participation 30%; worksheets 35%; essay 35%.
This class will probably be best suited to students of intermediate and higher English ability with TOEFL-PBT around 550-575. However, if your English is below this level but you are interested in the text and topics and serious about improving your reading and your vocabulary, this seminar could be for you.
WORKSHEETS
Read & consider before class
(Click on the + sign to download the pdf)
Orientation – read first
Week 2. Introduction:
1: pp.9-21,
2: pp.21-34:
25 pages
3: pp.34-48;
4: pp.48-63:
29 pages
6: pp.77-103:
26 pages
7: pp.104-118;
8: pp.118-129:
29 pages
9: pp.129-147:
18 pages
10: pp.147-163:
16 pages
11: pp.163-179:
16 pages
Reading Week:
essay consultation
12: pp.179-195:
16 pages
13: pp.195-213:
18 pages
14: pp.213-233:
20 pages
15: pp.233-249:
16 pages
Course review
“A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope.”
Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle