Undergraduate - UnitATS3313 - Speculative fiction

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 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

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Literary Studies
Offered	Clayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Rebecca Do Rozario

Synopsis

Through a study of the evolution of speculative fiction, also encompassing fantasy and science fiction, in the 20th and 21st centuries, students will learn how these literary genres have emerged. Students will be introduced to genre debates and theoretical approaches that inform work in these areas. Constructions of race, gender and class will be considered and students will be encouraged to interrogate the subversive and paradigm-changing potential in speculative works.

Outcomes

At the conclusion of the unit, students should have:

A critical understanding of the historical evolution of speculative, science and fantasy fictions through the 20th and 21st centuries.
A critical understanding of the major thematic paradigms of speculative, science and fantasy fictions.
A critical understanding of genre and how popular and scholarly genre debates have shaped the field of speculative, science and fantasy fictions.
An understanding of the ideological implications of key speculative, science and fantasy fiction texts.
The capacity to meet the general learning objectives of the school.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Rebecca Do Rozario

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Literary studies

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of second-year Arts units.

Prohibitions

ATS2413, ATS3413