This seminar examines how contemporary and classic fiction, both American and international, imagines artificial intelligence and the technological systems that shape everyday life. Through novels and short fiction we will explore questions of individuality and automation, surveillance, creativity and authorship, and the vanishing boundary between human and machine. We will pair literary texts with critical essays in science and technology studies to ground our reading in ethical and historical context. Students will lead discussions, write short analytical responses, and develop a research project that situates a primary text within global debates about AI. Authors may include Mary Shelley, Ted Chiang, Kazuo Ishiguro, Samanta Schweblin, Cixin Liu, Izumi Suzuki, alongside critics such as N. Katherine Hayles, and Kate Crawford. In consultation with the instructor, students may pursue personal projects, provided they include a writing component that fulfills the learning outcomes outlined in the syllabus.Modern Topics classes are focused on the critical investigation of a specific modern topic, movement, style, or tradition of literary and performative production, typically after the year 1900. Students will read and write critically on these topics, including multi-modal responses, and will position the texts within a socio-historical context.

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