Science Fiction and Historical Context

Catalog description

Science fiction is a wonderful genre that somehow captures a society's ideals, fears, assumptions, and major challenges. In the same way that a historian attempts to piece together complex cause-effect chains to make sense of the past, science fiction writers project the values, technologies, and beliefs of their own societies into alternate or future realities. Our class will work together to understand the conventions of science fiction and explore science fiction works (books, short stories, film) produced in different times, across various cultures, and in different sub-genres of this field. Students will have the opportunity to analyze different works of science fiction through writings and class discussions, and can also choose to develop a science fiction idea of their own. NOTE: this course lasts one half of the semester, will meet twice a week, and will require approximately 12 hours of student effort each week.