This course surveys the historical development and analytical frameworks of Science Fiction (SF) from its birth in the nineteenth century up to contemporary times. Students will read SF not just for entertainment, but as a literary genre that responds to the changes and critical issues of the time and the future—industrialisation, technological advancement, war, geopolitical tensions, globalisation, environmental crisis, etc. Meanwhile, with analytical tools such as Darko Suvin’s novum and cognitive estrangement, students will explore how SF writers build up alternate worlds and how these tools can be applied to the analysis of SF works from different historical times and cultures.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Map the historical evolution of science fiction as a literary genre to identify the key themes and tropes of each stage
- Apply critical frameworks to the analysis of SF works
- Engage with global and translated SF to understand how cultural and linguistic factors influence world-building
- Analyse how SF narratives critique and illuminate contemporary social, political, and technological developments
- Develop structured and critical arguments in academic writing that synthesise textual analysis and theoretical frameworks
• Defining SF
• The origin: 19th-century SF
• Pulps and Golden Age SF
• Dystopian SF
• Global SF and translation
• Climate SF
• Robot, AI, and SF
The course comprises weekly lectures/seminars, in-class discussions and casual sharing.
Assessment (100% coursework)
• Mid-term essay (30%)
• Term paper (50%)
• Class participation (20%)
- Latham, R. (ed.) (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press.
- Robert, A. (2016). The History of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Other critical works and primary texts will be provided on Moodle.