123223 SE Literature Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2011W)

Science fiction, the intermedial mode devoted to constructing alternative worlds, arguably presents one of the most challenging forms of literature. Reading sci fi involves one extra intellectual effort over and above the one necessary for reading more realistic forms of literature. In works of science fiction, we encounter societies, technologies, laws of nature and forms of life which are startlingly different from what what we know, a fact which attests to both the exuberant creativity and the politically utopian potential of the genre. In this course, we will investigate some of the key short stories and novels of the genre, analyse sci fi's types, forms and prime concerns and follow its changing course throughout the different stages of literary history.