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
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