Monday, February 16, 2009

AKE 450 Science Fiction and Fantasy


















This elective course is designed as an intensive survey of science fiction and fantasy and intends to make students acquainted with the qualities of the SF&F genre and its subgenres. The course is divided into two sections: The first will cover the SF genre and the second will focus on Fantasy. Nevertheless, this division is vague as material that fit both genres will be covered at the same time. The course includes prose and visual materials, i.e. novels, short stories and films of the genre. During class discussions and lectures, prominent figures and representatives of the genre, major works, primary influences, themes, motifs and subjects in the genre will be dealt with. The course intends to develop the student’s critical understanding of the works of the genre and thus will also touch upon subjects like utopia/dystopia, feminist SF&F, Marxist criticism of SF&F etc. As long as time permits, a brief survey of the Turkish SF&F will also be covered. The students are expected to read and watch all assigned material before and during the classes. There will be film screenings outside class hours as well.
Evaluation
This is a portfolio-based course. Each student is expected to complete a personal portfolio at the end of the semester and present to the instructor. The portfolio is to be composed of the analysis of one novel, three short stories and three films selected from the SF&F genre. The portfolio will be graded over 100. There will also be a midterm over 100 too. However, the instructor reserves the right to give pop quizzes if he sees necessary.

Apart for the assigned readings, each student will choose AT LEAST one novel, three short stories and three films from the list given. The grade A1 is reserved for students who do more than this criterion. If a student wants to choose (or add) extra material, it is necessary that the course instructor’s approval is obtained.


Week 1 – Feb. 18
Introduction. Theoretical background. SF&F Definitions. Read SF-Defs.pdf (http://tinyurl.com/cstjtn)
Hard vs. Social SF. General themes. History,
Read SF Pack 1 and SF Pack 1a
(http://tinyurl.com/czgp23) and (http://tinyurl.com/dezwo7)
Stories, Read SF Pack 1b (http://tinyurl.com/b4acbs)
“They're Made Out of Meat” by Terry Bisson, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and you can optionally watch the film online at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-175006468841636088 (256 mb)




Artificial Beings
Read Frankenstein (http://tinyurl.com/ccjkqj)
Homunculus, Golem, Tulpa, Robot, Android, Clone, Cyborg
Laws of Robotics:
0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law


1st Theme
Utopia/Dystopia/Anti-Utopia
If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery



Definitions.
"A utopia is the fictional representation of an ideal polity. It is political in nature, narrative in form, literary only in part."(Bammer, 1991:13)

A dystopia is defined as an inverted utopia, "An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible” the Oxford English Dictionary

A dystopia does not pretend to be utopian, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian or was intended to be so, but a fatal flaw or other factor has destroyed or twisted the intended utopian world or concept.

Works

Utopias

Plato’s Republic
Sir Thomas Moore Utopia
Complete text http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/thomasmore-utopia.html)
Francis Bacon, New Atlantis
Samuel Butler Erewhon
Edward Bellamy Looking Backward
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
B.F. Skinner, Walden Two
Ursula Le Guin, Left Hand of Darkness
Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia

Dystopias
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
George Orwell 1984
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Anthony Burgess, Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess, 1985
Margaret Atwood, Handmaid’s Tale

Also

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels
H.G. Wells The Shape of Things to Come (1933) and optionally watch Korda’s film Things to Come (1936)online at
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-4145112066780676003&hl=en& (227 mb)
Joanna Russ, The Female Man (1975)
Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Films:

Metropolis, Logan’s Run, Gattaca, 1984, Clockwork Orange, THX1138, Aeon Flux, Code 46, Equilibrium, District 13 (Fr.), Children of Men, Battle Royale (Jap.), Minority Report, Sleeper, Running Man, Soylent Green, V for Vendetta, Dark City

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