Science Fiction
As part of my developing interest in science fiction and fantasy literature, I've recently written a new optional module for third-year students at the University of Lincoln. The module will give students the opportunity to analyse the genre of modern science fiction (SF) and its evolution into one of today’s most popular narrative genres. Analysing a variety of forms – novel, short story, drama, graphic novel and film – students will examine the socio-historical contexts of some of the most influential narratives of this period: from the emergence of “scientific romance” in the late nineteenth century, to late twentieth-century forms like cyberpunk and radical fantasy; from the problems of defining “genre fictions” and privileging SF over fantasy, to our enduring fascination with alternate histories, non-human agents (robots, animals, genetic hybrids, the environment), ecocatastrophe and post-apocalypse.
Image by Stéfan under a CC BY-NC lincese.
Dr Caroline Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research and teaching specialisms are in 21st century literature and critical theory, science fiction and post-apocalyptic narratives, Marxist aesthetics, and utopianism.
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