In Frankenstein's Footsteps: Science Fiction in Literature and Film

UCIL20301 In Frankenstein's Footsteps: Science Fiction in Literature and Film 10 Semester 1 Undergraduate Level 2 James Sumner Unit coordinator Centre for History of Science, Technology & Medici 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Middle part of Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 5.0 <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Do scientists play God? Is it possible to understand an alien? Will machines rise up and enslave us? Does the rapid pace of scientific and technological change point towards a future paradise – or a hell on Earth? Or just to a different world that seems equally “normal”?<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">These are questions which authors and film-makers have long explored through fiction, for a wide variety of reasons: to make money by providing popular entertainment; to explore philosophical questions about the nature of humanity, technology or civilisation; to promote possible future projects in real life, or to warn of emerging dangers; to comment on the politics, social issues and cultural assumptions of their own times.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">This course uses science fiction literature and film from the nineteenth century to the present day to explore the changing place of science in the cultural imagination. We ask how science fiction has revealed – and sometimes changed – public dreams and anxieties around technology, the power of science, the future of our earth, and what it means to be human.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">   <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Do scientists play God? Is it possible to understand an alien? Will machines rise up and enslave us? Does the rapid pace of scientific and technological change point towards a future paradise – or a hell on Earth? Or just to a different world that seems equally “normal”?<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">These are questions which authors and film-makers have long explored through fiction, for a wide variety of reasons: to make money by providing popular entertainment; to explore philosophical questions about the nature of humanity, technology or civilisation; to promote possible future projects in real life, or to warn of emerging dangers; to comment on the politics, social issues and cultural assumptions of their own times.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">This course uses science fiction literature and film from the nineteenth century to the present day to explore the changing place of science in the cultural imagination. We ask how science fiction has revealed – and sometimes changed – public dreams and anxieties around technology, the power of science, the future of our earth, and what it means to be human.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">   <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">To explore through science fiction literature and film the cultural responses to science and technology. This course takes a selection of classic texts and films from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries to explore the popular imagining of science and technology over this period. <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">On completion of the unit, students will be able to:<ul><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Examine the historical development of approaches to science, technology and medicine (STM) in literature and film.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Understand science fiction's role in shaping the cultural meanings of STM.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Analyse science fiction as a genre.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Understand how scientific images and knowledge are constructed, interpreted, and transformed for and by science fiction.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Understand the power of storytelling and characterisation to persuade and provoke questions on real-life present and future scenarios.</li></ul> <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Students should/will be able to:<ul><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Examine the historical development of approaches to science, technology and medicine in literature and film. </li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Understand science fiction's role in shaping the cultural meanings of science, technology and medicine.</li></ul> <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Students should/will be able to:<ul><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Analyse science fiction as a genre.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Understand how scientific images and knowledge are constructed, interpreted, and transformed for and by science fiction.</li></ul> <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Students should/will be able to:<ul><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Analyse a specific work of fiction in depth, drawing on a survey of the secondary literature.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Produce a well-structured essay delivering a focused argument that responds to the analytical approaches applied during the course.</li></ul> Analytical skills Perform a directed literature search, digest and critically appraise analysis aimed at a variety of different audiences. Research Apply close-reading techniques to a source to understand how its creators achieve particular communication effects. <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The exact course content may vary from year to year, depending on staff availability and recent developments in the field, but will typically include the following:<ul><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Introduction</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Creating a monster? Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and its legacy</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Amateurs and professionals: science fiction in the late nineteenth century</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Nuclear fear: hell-bombs and last survivors</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Anxiety in the UK: decline and invasion fears in national context</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">From robots to replicants: a history of artificial people</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Reimagining gender and sexuality</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Cyberpunk and virtual worlds</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Worlds beyond white? Diversifying science fiction</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Cloning, eugenics and global pandemic: bodies and medical science fiction</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">After the flood: climate fiction and environmental crisis</li></ul> Each week's teaching will include two main elements:Around one hour of video from the unit lecturer. This will be pre-recorded for you to view at your own convenience. We use this format because much of the course content is based on film, TV, and online sources: the videos will feature clips of source material, and pointers to resources for independent study, alongside analytical commentary. Each week's videos will also introduce the required reading or viewing, and introduce the wider course unit themes it relates to.A 50-minute discussion seminar hosted by the unit lecturer or graduate teaching assistant. Each seminar will be themed around the week's required reading or viewing, and will build on the ideas presented in the video through general discussion and group activities and offer a chance to raise questions. Seminar groups will meet face-to-face on campus.The videos will be available in advance of each teaching week, and can be viewed at any time.You will need to be able to attend at least one of the following times for the weekly live seminar (subject to change): Thursday 10am Thursday 12pm Thursday 2pm Friday 10am Friday 12pm Friday 2pm<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">  0 Other 100% <p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Source Analysis (1000 words): 40%<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Essay (1500 words): 60% <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.4px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Detailed feedback is provided online. Teaching staff will be available for one-to-one consultation following return of feedback.  None. The unit is accessible to students who have no background in its themes, but is also designed to help more experienced students understand how they relate to other areas Y <ul><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Roslynn Haynes, From Madman to Crime Fighter: the Scientist in Western Culture (John Hopkins University Press, 2017)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, second edition (Routledge, 2006)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">David Seed, ed., A Companion to Science Fiction (Blackwell, 2005)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (Cambridge University Press, 2003)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">David Kirby, Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema (MIT Press, 2011)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Patricia Melzer, Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought (University of Texas Press, 2006)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Ytasha Womack, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Lawrence Hill, 2013)</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;">Jutta Weldes, ed., To Seek Out New Worlds: Science Fiction and World Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)</li></ul> Lectures 12 Seminars 12 0 76 UCIL units are designed to be accessible to undergraduate students from all disciplines. UCIL units are credit-bearing and it is not possible to audit UCIL units or take them for additional/extra credits. You must enrol following the standard procedure for your School when adding units outside of your home School.If you are not sure if you are able to enrol on UCIL units you should contact your School Undergraduate office. You may wish to contact your programme director if your programme does not currently allow you to take a UCIL unit. You can also contact the UCIL office if you have any questions.This unit is also available in a 20-credit version, UCIL20801, which features an additional assessment involving independent research. The lecture video component and seminars are the same.This unit is also available with a different course unit code. To take a UCIL unit, you must choose the unit with a UCIL prefix.