HNRS-271 | Science Fiction

Full Title: Science Fiction

Topic Description:

The focus of inquiry of this course is a critical exploration of how the alien worlds of science fiction are related to our own, even when they seem to be very different on the surface. The idea of estrangement or alienation is seen as being central to science fiction; after all, this is a genre that explores worlds that are different from ours. However, influential theorists of the genre have made the claim that science fiction offers ways of engaging with the present while appearing to be focused on the future. According to Darko Suvin’s definition of science fiction, a tension between the familiar and the strange is built into this genre. This course will explore how science fiction offers us ways of re-conceptualizing and representing the present, even in texts set ostensibly in the future and on strange worlds

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: October 2017