Research in Genre Fiction, Fall 2025

Crime, fantasy, romance…science fiction, Western, horror: for the last hundred years, most of the fiction people have read in English has been what is now called “genre fiction.” And for most of the last hundred years, these categories of fiction have been largely ignored as features of literary history. Considered merely popular, juvenile, subliterary, genre fiction has only gradually become a subject of serious study in its own right. This course introduces students to the questions and challenges raised by the study of twentieth-century genre fiction: what is distinctive about the subliterary? Who reads and writes it? How has this changed? We will read and analyze exemplary genre fictions from multiple eras, including both early and recent texts in crime, science fiction, and romance. At the same time we will develop the skills necessary to research the literary history of these genres, focusing on both digitized materials and physical artifacts. The course culminates in a research paper focusing on a specific moment in the history of a genre. The major assignments of the course will build up to this research paper and offer multiple opportunities to present and workshop work in progress.

Detailed syllabus: syllabus.pdf.

This page last updated: December 18, 2025.

  • Wednesday, September 3. What is genre fiction? What is genre?

    • Introduction.

  • Monday, September 8. Cross section: pulps.

    • Christie, “The Tuesday Night Club” (1927).
    • Stone, “The Conquest of Gola” (1931).
    • Schalk, “Love in a Penthouse” (1931) .
    • Browse the scans of the magazines linked on Canvas. Skim rapidly from front to back, and find at least two interesting things. Consider: who is this for? How does it ask to be read? How can you tell?

  • Wednesday, September 10. Core sample: crime.

  • Monday, September 15. More sample: crime.

    • Grafton, A Is for Alibi (1982), chaps. 1–2.
    • Swaminathan, “The Sixth Pandava” (2018).

  • Wednesday, September 17. Models of genre study: crime.

    • Horsley, Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction, 1–10, 242–51, 262–65, 272-75.
    • Bordwell, Perplexing Plots, 8–13, 19–21, 194–97, 218-228.

  • Monday, September 22. Romance: meet cute.

    • E. M. Hull, The Sheik (1921), chap. 1.
    • Casey McQuiston, One Last Stop (2021), 1–20.

  • Wednesday, September 24. Thinking about: romance.

    • Radway, Reading the Romance, 19–20, 25–29, 46–49, 86–118.
    • Hefner, Black Pulp, 51–69.

  • Monday, September 29. SF: It changed.

    • Russ, “When It Changed” (1972).
    • Butler, “Bloodchild” (1984).

  • Wednesday, October 1. Thinking about: SF.

    • John Rieder, Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System, 13–31, 44–53.
    • Luckhurst, Science Fiction, 6–9, 180–83, 213–219.

  • (Friday, October 3.)

    • Paper 1 exercise due.

  • Monday, October 6. Onwards with the story.

    • Grafton, A Is for Alibi, chaps. 1–10.

  • Wednesday, October 8.

    • Grafton, A Is for Alibi, complete.

  • (Friday, October 10.)

  • Monday, October 13.

  • Wednesday, October 15. Proto-romance.

    • Hull, The Sheik, chaps. 1–3.

  • Monday, October 20.

    • Hull, The Sheik, complete.

  • Wednesday, October 22. Contemporary…or is it?

    • McQuiston, One Last Stop, 1–40.

  • Monday, October 27.

    • McQuiston, One Last Stop, 1–145.

  • Wednesday, October 29.

    • Wilkins et al., Genre Worlds, chaps. 1 and 4.
    • McQuiston, One Last Stop, 1–193.

  • Monday, November 3.

    • McQuiston, One Last Stop, 1–340.

  • (Tuesday, November 4.)

  • Wednesday, November 5.

    • McQuiston, One Last Stop, complete.

  • Monday, November 10. Everything is weird now.

    • VanderMeer, Annihilation, chap. 1.
    • Your own reading.

  • Wednesday, November 12.

    • VanderMeer, Annihilation, chaps. 1–2.
    • Your own reading.

  • Monday, November 17.

    • VanderMeer, Annihilation, chaps. 1–3.
    • Your own reading.

  • Wednesday, November 19. Who’s colonizing who now?

    • VanderMeer, Annihilation, complete.
    • Your own reading.

  • Monday, November 24.

  • (Wednesday, November 26. Friday classes meet today.)

  • Monday, December 1.

  • Wednesday, December 3.

  • Monday, December 8. Genre goes digital.

    • McGurl, Everything and Less, chap. 3.
    • Thompson, Book Wars, chap. 1.

  • Wednesday, December 10. Course conclusion: show and tell and done.

  • (Wednesday, December 17.)