Science (in) Fiction

Catalog description

Science fiction has been called the realism of our time. And Latin America has an exceptionally long history of pushing the bounds of what can be considered to be real. This course examines science fiction in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world: from early extra-terrestrial travel stories – to the moon and planets beyond – all the way to contemporary hope punk and the creative reimagination of earthly futures. Breaking with the standard tropes of the Global North, Latin American genres of science fiction operate at the intersection of technological skepticism, decolonial inquiry, and multispecies worldmaking. Students will explore how Latin American science fiction writers, filmmakers, and graphic artists – most of them women – interrogate ecological crises, patriarchal paradigms, and the impact of emerging technologies on what it means to be human. Conducted in Spanish.