Life beyond Earth: Extraterrestrials since 1897

Catalog description

Humankind’s self-understanding as a species is defined, tested and exposed when confronted with radical alterity, be it real or imagined. Located at the intersection of European and American cultural history, the history of science and technology, literary studies and film, this class charts the manifold figurations of the alien since its modern invention in 1897. Sessions examine alleged invasions from Mars and Venus, H. G. Wells and Liu Cixin, UFO sightings and alien encounters, but also the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), NASA’s Voyager missions, the Plurality of Worlds, Ancient Astronauts and Rare Earth controversies and many other aspects of modern extraterrestrialism.