HUAS80042 - The Emergence of Science Fiction

Course Description

The genre that we today call science fiction came into the light of day in the nineteenth century – a turbulent epoch that saw dozens of revolutions, the advent of mass print culture, the professionalization of science, the development of disciplines such as sociology, historiography, and statistics, and a new attitude toward the future as a subject of serious collective interest and anticipation, all of which contributed to the birth of this complicated and fascinating genre. Considering the works of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jules Verne, Albert Robida, and H.G. Wells alongside other relevant primary sources, this class will approach science fiction as intellectual history: that is, not only as the product of a technologically saturated society in the wake of industrialization, but also as a reflection of the accumulation and circulation of new ideas and discoveries in the fields of geology, biology, and physics and a larger reconceptualization of humanity’s relationship to the natural world.

Course Outline

Course Syllabus

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Online registration deadline: Thurs, Jun 8, 5PM CT