In this summer course we will be making a text-based study of the science fiction genre (focusing on short stories and novels rather than film & TV). Concentrating on American SF of the past century, we will explore the significant periods/modes/movements of SF (e.g., the Golden Age, hard SF, cyberpunk). A series of fundamental questions will guide our study: What is SF? (how do we define it? what are its conventions?); Why do we read it? (what impact is it designed to have on our imagination and intellect?); How do we read it? (what strains are placed on the hermeneutic process by the poetics of SF?). Science fiction has been called the "literature of ideas"; accordingly, we will explore how it works as literature, and the culturally-relevant ideas it conveys.