American Media: Science Fiction - Detailseite

As Scott Bukatman reminds us, Science Fiction is not really about the future, but rather about our own time, or, more precisely, the time it was created. In this class we will look at classical American Science Fiction movies and discuss their relation to contemporaneous American culture. Which current ideas, ideologies, anxieties, desires, hopes etc. do these movies express? What kind of positions do they take within the contemporaneous American matrix of power? In which way are they critical or dubious? How does the genre develop and do the movies exhibit common features and tenets? The movies we will be watching will include early examples such as Frankenstein (1931) or Flash Gordon (1936), classics such as The Fly (1958), Planet of Apes (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1972)and Dr. Strangelove (1964), and new developments such as Tron (1982) and Blade Runner (1982).

Reading:

·         There are two interesting introductory books: Vivian Sobchack, Screening Space. The American Science Fiction Film (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 2004) and J.P. Telotte, Science Fiction Film (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001). However, you don't have to read these books, we will work with a reader in class.

·         A reader with texts to be read for class will be available at "Sprintout", Georgenstraße, S-Bahn Bogen 190.

Requirements:

Students will prepare one meeting together with the instructor (you will not give Referate, but rather organize activities and the discussion). MA students may also have to select a self-study topic.

You have to register for this class in the e-learning platform Moodle. As a password use "Science". In Moodle you will find the syllabus for the class.

Link zu Moodle: