Undergraduate - UnitATS3413 - Science fiction: From monsters to cyborgs

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
Offered	Not offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)	Professor Andrew Milner

Notes

Previously coded CLS3080

Synopsis

This unit will introduce students to contemporary discussion and debate about science fiction. It will examine:

Various theoretical approaches to the analysis of science fiction.
The historical development of the genre from the gothic through to cyberpunk.
The debates over the genre's social role, whether as a source for the stabilisation or for the subversion of social norms.
A number of key science fiction texts, drawn from the novel, film and television.

The approach will be from a cultural studies perspective, which will seek to problematise the conventional binary oppositions between high and low culture, literature and fiction.

Outcomes

At the conclusion of the unit, students should be able:

To demonstrate a knowledge both of various theoretical approaches to the analysis of science fiction and of the historical development of the genre from the Gothic through to Cyberpunk.
To demonstrate a critical understanding both of the debates over the genre's social role, whether as a source for the stabilisation or for the subversion of social norms, and of a number of science fiction texts, drawn from the novel, film and television.
To understand, feel comfortable with and be able to articulate the analytical skills, theoretical vocabularies and conceptual apparatuses studied.
To demonstrate a sense of their own personal and cultural reflexivity as they observe and interpret the theories, concepts and texts analysed in the unit.
To write clear, grammatically and syntactically appropriate, independent essays on the various topics provided or chosen for assessment.

Assessment

Essay (2500 words): 50%
Examination (2 hours): 50%
Third-year students will be expected to read more complex critical texts and to write a less descriptive and more self-reflexive essay