Fall 2018  |  CSCL 3334 Section 001: Monsters, Robots, Cyborgs (18129)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/04/2018 - 12/12/2018
Mon, Wed, Fri 02:30PM - 03:20PM
UMTC, East Bank
Nicholson Hall 155
Enrollment Status:
Open (92 of 140 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Historical/critical reading of figures (e.g., uncanny double, monstrous aberration, technological hybrid) in mythology, literature, and film, from classical epic to sci-fi, cyberpunk, and Web. (previously 3461)
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?CSCL3461+Fall2016
Class Description:
This course takes as a point of departure the understanding that monstrosity is always and inevitably produced by human imagination and labor. Why do we create monsters? What purpose does the category of the monstrous serve? In part, monster stories tell us something about human fears and insecurities. They also help us map out historical phenomena such as the principles of social order for a particular group - its codes for belonging, its class relations and mode of production, as well as its individual and collective psychological structures. Monstrosity becomes a tool to designate improper human forms or behaviors, or unaccepted forms of life, and therefore becomes a powerful mechanism for social control. Whereas the threat to a recognizable human body, subjectivity, or community at one point was thought to originate from a source in nature, the robot and cyborg suggest that the dominant source of our anxieties arise from new forms of human technology, which not only threaten social order, but also threaten to redefine what we mean by "human" altogether. If the figure of the cyborg jacked-in to the cultural anxieties of the late twentieth century, it has been argued that the zombie is the monster appropriate to our contemporary late capitalist condition. Throughout the semester we will be reading and analyzing novels, plays, and theoretical texts, as well as critically viewing popular cultural films, websites, and images. In all cases, we will attempt to articulate the representations of monsters, robots, cyborgs, and zombies to their particular historical and material conditions in order to understand the important social functions these stories and figures play.
Grading:



Grading will follow CLA guidelines. C work meets the requirements in every way; B and A
are reserved for especially creative, perceptive work that exceeds the course requirements.




Exam Format:
In-class reading/comprehension quizzes
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/18129/1189
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
3 January 2018

ClassInfo Links - Fall 2018 Cultural Stdy/Comparative Lit Classes

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