“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. Literature and science-fiction in a mechanical and production engineering programme

Abstract

This article is about a teaching experience that takes place in a technological university programme (Mechanical and Production Engineering). It is organized around the text "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, an author best known for her works in speculative fiction, including science-fiction. I argue that SF, in this context of teaching geared towards a functional approach of language, has a political dimension. It is a particularly effective way to redistribute the sensible. Because of its minority nature and because of its openness to technical culture, SF avoids certain effects of symbolic domination and is relevant to Mechanical and Production Engineering students. Moreover, in her text, Ursula Le Guin can be understood, after Rancière's ignorant schoolmaster, as an ignorant author, who postulates a form of equality between herself and her readers. The result is that the students have learned, not to develop communicative skills, but to enjoy language, that is to say , to step out of the place they have been assigned to.