Infinite Possibilities: 2000 Years of Science Fiction

label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Ioana Dinescu
This course aims to provide students with an overview of science fictional writing and visual arts from their ancient origins to twenty-first-century novels and films.We aim to discuss, develop and critique definitions of 'science fiction' in critical and commercial usage, explore the impact of the history of science on the Science Fiction genre, and guide and encourage both critical and creative responses to science and fiction across time.How did science fiction become such a vital and visible part of popular culture today? This course takes students through the 2000-year voyage of the Science Fiction genre, from its deep past to its distant futures. We will explore ideas about the half-human and the living machine, about aliens and other planets, about the apocalypse and end of time. Trips to London museums, exhibitions and landmarks will enable us to view a variety of scientific phenomena and think about the history of science and its influence on SF. In class, students will reflect and respond to the ways that science interacts with the literary and visual imagination across time, balancing analysis of Science Fiction literature and art with film screenings and creative writing (fiction or filmic). We will look at both classic and contemporary works of Science Fiction: from the earliest imaginings of automatons and alchemists to cyberpunk dystopias and post-apocalyptic London.

Period
07-07-2014 - 25-07-2014 (3 weeks)

Target group
The overall theme will appeal, of course, to those interested in imaginative literature and genre studies generally. Our plan to situate SF in a much broader context than is usually the case will allow students to think about this cultural phenomenon from a unique perspective, one not afforded by similar courses on science fiction. The creative writing component also gives students a chance to respond to what they have learnt in open and flexible ways. But our course also incorporates the study and history of science and technology. For this reason, it will appeal to students across the Sciences as well as the Arts, providing them with the chance to experience and write about scientific artifacts and specimens in the Science Museum, London, and the Natural History Museum. The historically minded will appreciate the way that the course ranges across time.

Course aim
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:- Demonstrate an ability to re/define science fiction, and to use terminology appropriate to this field of literary and cultural studies, as well as show basic knowledge of key historical developments in science, especially their impact upon literary and visual arts;- Demonstrate in critical and creative writing an increased awareness of the thematic, social and cultural possibilities of science fiction;- Produce organised, coherently argued and critically informed written work along with being able to engage in coherent oral discussion of SF texts and visual media.



Credits
0.0 ECTS credits

Course fee
GBP 1430[Convert to USD]tuition fee only

Course leader
Dr James Paz & Mr Carl KearsDr Paz and Mr Kears are co-editors of Medieval Science Fiction (forthcoming 2014 from Boydel/KCLMS) and lecturers in the English Department at Kings College London.

King's College London
Address: Strand, London
Postal code: WC2R 2LS
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7848 1533