2 classes matched your search criteria.

Fall 2018  |  ENGL 3022 Section 001: Science Fiction and Fantasy (19901)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/04/2018 - 12/12/2018
Mon, Wed 11:15AM - 12:30PM
UMTC, East Bank
Akerman Hall 215
Enrollment Status:
Open (28 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Science Fiction and Fantasy will introduce students to the study of classic and contemporary science fiction and fantasy literature. Using literary techniques, students will explore the alternate realities, characters, cultures, genders, races, ecologies, politics, settings, and technologies of science fiction and fantasy primarily through reading novels and stories. Questions may include: What does speculation about the future tell us about our present and past? What does the unreal reveal about our real lives? To what extent does science fiction function as both escapist fantasy and prophetic reality?
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?mccar757+ENGL3022+Fall2018
Class Description:
This course examines the emergence of modern science fiction, with a heavy emphasis on the word "science," insofar as the genre responds to the history and philosophy of science. A key theme to this class will be "Enlightened Automata," a term coined by science historian Simon Schaffer to denote the amazingly lifelike 18th-century clockwork precursors to the modern android. These automata were spectacles created for a paying audience - of course - but, as Schaffer argues, they were also profound philosophical investigations into the nature of our scientific knowledge about the material world and projections of an idealized social order. As a genre, SF is uniquely qualified to speak to the machinic quality of modern life, made possible by a scientific spirit - inherited from Enlightenment-era discourses - that collects, parses, measures, maps, divides, classifies, categorizes, defines, rationalizes, and instrumentalizes, ostensibly according to rigid formal procedures (what's come to be called "the scientific method"). These procedures are at once preconditions for modern scientific knowledge and technological innovation, and used in part to facilitate the increasing mechanization, automation (and now computation) under capitalism. Almost by definition, SF captures the machine in terms of content; in this course, we will also examine the ways that SF might also capture it in terms of form, as these texts mimic, borrow from, and highlight (and often critique, at least by implication) the conventions, methodologies, and in some cases the rhetorical style of the scientific tradition. In other words, to what degree can we read these fictions themselves as "Enlightened Automata"? Possible primary texts include: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Karel Čapek, R.U.R.; Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel; Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep; Isaac Asimov, I, Robot; Kurt Vonnegut, Piano Player; Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad; John Sladek, Tik-Tok; Marge Pierce, He, She, and It. Ted Chiang, The Lifecycle of Software Objects; Metropolis; Blade Runner; Ex Machina.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/19901/1189
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
1 April 2016

Fall 2018  |  ENGL 3022 Section 002: Science Fiction and Fantasy (33473)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/04/2018 - 12/12/2018
Thu 05:30PM - 08:00PM
UMTC, East Bank
Ford Hall 127
Enrollment Status:
Open (25 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Science Fiction and Fantasy will introduce students to the study of classic and contemporary science fiction and fantasy literature. Using literary techniques, students will explore the alternate realities, characters, cultures, genders, races, ecologies, politics, settings, and technologies of science fiction and fantasy primarily through reading novels and stories. Questions may include: What does speculation about the future tell us about our present and past? What does the unreal reveal about our real lives? To what extent does science fiction function as both escapist fantasy and prophetic reality?
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?joh12032+ENGL3022+Fall2018
Class Description:
This course examines a variety of texts within the genres of science fiction and fantasy through a number of critical lenses. We will seek to define the genres of sci fi and fantasy as well as explore the relevance of these texts to our contemporary society. The book list for this course is still being finalized but we will be privileging works by female and queer authors and authors of color.
Who Should Take This Class?:
Anyone interested in works of sci fi and fantasy who wishes to read and learn more! There will be a lot of reading for this class so keep that in mind and be prepared!
Exam Format:
No exam given for this class. There WILL be a final paper that counts for a large portion of your final grade, however.
Workload:
100-200 pages of reading a week (I strive to keep it closer to 100 but may not always), weekly Canvas posts, several short papers throughout semester, one presentation and one final paper.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/33473/1189
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
16 April 2018

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