MEDIA 319

Science Fiction Media


Please note: this is archived course information from 2020 for MEDIA 319.

Description

This course examines science fiction as a media genre. While sci-fi is hugely popular and entertaining, it also plays a unique role in contemporary public culture through its tendency to tackle big and controversial issues facing humanity, and to expand our political, philosophical, social and scientific imagination through creative world-building and futuristic speculation.

Some of the big themes of science fiction that we look at in this course include:

  • Alien encounters
  • Exploration and colonisation of outer space
  • Post-human futures (robots, artificial intelligence and cyborgs)
  • Scientific advances and bioethics
  • Utopias and dystopias
  • Apocalypse and the collapse of civilisation
  • The real and the virtual
  • Time travel narratives

These themes are approached through key examples of science fiction texts. These are usually films but examples may also be drawn from a range of other media such as TV, literature and computer games.

 

Assessment

Coursework only

View the course syllabus

Availability 2020

Semester 1

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Associate Professor Luke Goode

Points

MEDIA 319: 15 points

Prerequisites

30 points at Stage II in Media, Film and Television

Restrictions

FTVMS 224, FTVMS 319, MEDIA 224