Science Fiction Perspectives on Time

Catalog description

This course focuses on science fiction (SF) short stories about time travel, the future, alternative pasts, and beings whose relation to time differs from our own. Students will read works by such giants as Asimov, Bradbury, Butler, Chiang, Clarke, Dick, Gibson, Heinlein, and LeGuin from a range of SF movements, including the golden age, new wave, alternate history, cyberpunk, and steampunk. Students will also watch TV episodes and a film. Because these works illustrate key concepts in how we understand time - such as Einstein's special theory of relativity, changes over time, the possible unreality of time, and how audiences are clued in to narrative time frames - students will also consider responses to SF time by a theoretical physicist, historians, and a philosopher, and the course will be taught by a Ph.D. in English who has published on SF. Prerequisite(s): BUS 1010 or FYWR 1020 .