Ten Futures
North Sydney
:
Woolshed Press
,
2012
Z1855233
2012
selected work
short story
young adult
science fiction
(taught in 2 units)
'Sam and Tara. Best friends in a future when artificial intelligence organises our lives, and micropets are the latest craze. Best friends when rationing means cold showers and no internet. Best friends when genetic matching makes asking a girl on a date a minefield of epic proportions.
'But will they still be best friends in a future when plague wipes out most of humanity? Or a future when the Inquisitor asks Sam to choose one betrayal over another?' (From the publisher's website.)
Children’s texts offer models for ways of living in the world by positioning children to identify with characters who want certain things and who behave in specific ways that lead them to success. Never innocent of politics, narratives presented to children tell them about the world and their place within broader cultural institutions. Using theories that interrogate the construction of power and mechanisms of control in contemporary societies, this unit looks at the role children’s texts play in inducting children into value systems. Students will analyse the extent to which children’s texts express or contest the politics of our time.
Exercise 1000 words 25%, Essay 1000 words 25%, Essay 2000 words 50%
