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From Jules Verne’s Extraordinary Voyages to twenty-first-century “cli-fi,” this course traces the development and significance of French and Francophone speculative fiction, exploring how speculative narratives have imagined — and interrogated — technological change, scientific discovery, environmental transformation, and social change. Focusing on the nineteenth century, a period of rapid scientific and industrial change, we analyze how the era’s unique debates and anxieties resonate in contemporary speculative writing, from climate fiction to Afrofuturism. Authors may include Verne, Flammarion, Boulle, Vonarburg, Nsafou, and Roch, alongside scientific and philosophical texts. Students will develop their own speculative fiction project in French. Course may include mandatory field trip.