COLT 204 The World of Fiction: Science Fiction

Anindita Banerjee

Science fiction articulates some of our deepest hopes, fears, and fantasies surrounding scientific and technological development. What catapulted it into a major genre of our age? Why is science fiction equally popular in more and less technologically advanced societies? The course is intended to develop both theoretical and cultural appreciation of science fiction through literary and filmic texts from West Europe, Eastern Europe, and America. Themes for discussion are structured around new forms of consciousness contiguous with evolving, often contradictory attitudes towards scientific and technological “progress”: mystical, rational, imperial, industrial, consumerist, totalitarian, global, virtual/ cybercultural, feminist, ecological. Readings and films include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Karel Capek’s RUR, Evgeny Zamyatin’s We, William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, Marge Piercy’s He, She, and It; Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.