Science Fiction Fantasy

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course will investigate the concept of the future within a global cultural imagination, examining a wide range of literary and cinematic genres in science fiction & fantasy. The class will read a short selection from earlier science fiction writers—from H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke to Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick. We will discuss how speculations of the future have evolved over time and address how such classic works speak to contemporary issues about time and space, the science of geophysical disasters, the destruction of the environment, financial Armageddon, pandemics and contagions, governmental control and the chilling prospects of nuclear war and global terrorism. Other topics will encompass Afrofuturism, utopia and dystopia, myths and legends, zombies, epic quests in historical and fantasy novels and Japanese anime. Other writers may include Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Max Brooks and J. R. R. Tolkien.