Fictional Worlds

Undergraduate / Graduate

A portal opens: you step into a fictional world. This enduring fantasy of engaging with art involves a number of ideas that often go unaddressed. What is a "world," and how do movies, games, TV, and books try to offer us one? Focusing primarily on cases from cinema and video games, this class takes a multifaceted and critical approach to fictional worlds. We'll ask how different media formations and technologies support them, interrogate the theoretical concept of "world" and its cognates ("diegesis," "worldbuilding"), and consider the politics of making, policing, and breaking worlds, from sci-fi games to art cinema to fan creation. Over the course of the quarter, you'll undertake an ongoing study of a world of your choosing, delivering your report at our final session-a Worlds Fair.