3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

In this seminar, students will sail through the world of science fiction, from the fantastic voyages recorded by ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, to classic nineteenth-century sci-fi novels by authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, and Jules Verne. As we will learn, sci-fi stories (both ancient and modern) have been pulled in two directions: forward, in the direction of innovative scientific exploration; and backward, toward a dim pre-history of monsters and magic. Along the way, sci-fi writers have wrestled with age-old social issues such as morality and mortality; gender and sexuality; and social constructions of the Other through categories like race. Ultimately, students in this seminar will learn how to peer back into the distant past and (re)examine how we approach the icy edges of our own world.