3.0

credits

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When the German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote a dream narrative that turned the world on its head, describing it as seen from the moon, he changed the way we think both about scientific progress and about the power of literature. Starting with Kepler’s famous narrative – "Somnium" (1609) – this course will explore the long and intriguing history of German fictions of science. From the most eccentric Baroque thought experiments, to German Expressionist films like Fritz Lang's “Metropolis,” to Lena Richter’s short stories with their neurodivergent characters (such as “3,78 Lifepoints”), to Myra Çakan’s Cyberpunk, we will consider not only literary and filmic representations of the sciences, but also how advances in the sciences together with their critique find early expressions through fiction. Taught in German.