CLS2080

Science fiction: from monsters to cyborgs

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

Andrew Milner

8 points
* 2 hours per week
* Clayton

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should be able to demonstrate some familiarity with the history of the genre and with various theoretical approaches to its study; demonstrate a critical understanding of the debates over the genre's social role; articulate the analytical skills, theoretical vocabularies and conceptual apparatuses studied in the subject; demonstrate a sense of their own personal and cultural reflexivity; write clear, grammatically and syntactically appropriate, independent essays on the topics chosen for assessment.

Synopsis This subject will introduce students to contemporary discussion and debate about science fiction. It will examine: (i) various theoretical approaches to the analysis of science fiction; (ii) the historical development of the genre from the gothic through to cyberpunk; (iii) the debates over the genre's social role, whether as a source for the stabilisation or for the subversion of social norms; (iv) a number of key science fiction texts, drawn from the novel, film and television. The general framework will be comparative and historical and the general 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. Students will be allowed a choice in presenting their own reading and interests.

Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words): 20%
* Essay (2500 words): 50%
* Examination (2 hours): 30%

Preliminary reading

Parrinder P Science fiction: Its criticism and teaching Methuen, 1980

Prescribed texts

Atwood M The handmaid's tale Houghton Mifflin, 1986
Dick P K Do androids dream of electric sheep? Grafton, 1968
Gibson W Neuromancer Grafton, 1986
Le Guin U K The left hand of darkness Ace Books, 1969
Lem S Solaris Penguin, 1981
Orwell G Nineteen eighty-four OUP, 1984
Piercy M Woman on the edge of time Kopf, 1976
Robinson K S Pacific edge Unwin Hyman, 1990
Zamiatin E We Cape, 1970

Recommended texts

Aldiss B Trillion year spree: The history of science fiction Atheneum, 1986
Broderick D Reading by starlight: Postmodern science fiction Routledge, 1995
Clute J and Nicholls P (eds) The encyclopedia of science fiction Orbit, 1993
Slusser G and Shippey T (eds) Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the future of narrative U Georgia P, 1992