20-21 EN3308: Science Fiction
Scope of the Course.
This course explores Science Fiction from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through to the present day, in its fictional, cinematic/televisual and broader cultural forms.
Aims of the Course.
This course is a third-year whole unit exploring the main aspects of Science Fiction in fiction, film, and TV from its origins in the nineteenth century up to the present day.
Learning Outcomes.
After taking this course, students will be able to:
• define and understand ‘science fiction’ as a critical and generic category.
• have a detailed appreciation of a range of canonical Science Fiction narratives, in fiction, film, and TV.
• appreciate the intertextual and allusive aspects of SF (an exceptionally intertextual cultural mode).
• develop their critical awareness of the genre, by recourse to a number of key concepts from the areas of critical theory, media, film, and cultural studies
• branch out and study SF texts not listed on the course, for the purposes of the assessment of this course or other courses (for instance, dissertation)
As a Year 3 whole-unit course; the course will draw on the by-now considerable body of critical expertise and experience students bring with them, both in terms of critical/theoretical perspectives and the larger sense of a wider and appropriate reading.
This course explores Science Fiction from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through to the present day, in its fictional, cinematic/televisual and broader cultural forms.
Aims of the Course.
This course is a third-year whole unit exploring the main aspects of Science Fiction in fiction, film, and TV from its origins in the nineteenth century up to the present day.
Learning Outcomes.
After taking this course, students will be able to:
• define and understand ‘science fiction’ as a critical and generic category.
• have a detailed appreciation of a range of canonical Science Fiction narratives, in fiction, film, and TV.
• appreciate the intertextual and allusive aspects of SF (an exceptionally intertextual cultural mode).
• develop their critical awareness of the genre, by recourse to a number of key concepts from the areas of critical theory, media, film, and cultural studies
• branch out and study SF texts not listed on the course, for the purposes of the assessment of this course or other courses (for instance, dissertation)
As a Year 3 whole-unit course; the course will draw on the by-now considerable body of critical expertise and experience students bring with them, both in terms of critical/theoretical perspectives and the larger sense of a wider and appropriate reading.