Course Description

This course will posit that speculative fiction (specifically, the speculative fiction one finds on television and film) represents one of the only still viable generic forms that deals with the present in an allegorical form. Starting from this premise, we will address a number of issues in contemporary culture through the popular science fiction and fantasy works we will be viewing, specifically postmodernism, our contemporary carceral culture, politics and power, and late capitalism. The course will also serve as an introduction to the major theories currently influencing English studies: narratology, theories of gender and sex, postmodernism, theories of ideology, and psychoanalysis. As such, the course will use my web-based Guide to Theory as one of its primary texts: http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory. I will suggest that speculative fiction gives us a special access to the ways we make sense of the world in our everyday lives. By pushing to the limits such issues as subjectivity, temporal sequentiality, and representation, speculative fiction can uncover the ways ideology, narrative, and epistemology function on a day-to-day basis. In short, as we progress through the semester, we will be taking both science fiction and pop culture seriously, and will consequently be dealing with a number of "serious" issues that concern us in our contemporary culture.

     
 
 
 
Guide to Theory
 
 
Modules:
  
 
 
 
Definitions:
 
 
 
 
Introductions:
  
 
 
     
 
Class Web Site
 
 
Synopses:
  
 
 
 
Primers:
  
 
 
 
Jump to Date:
 
 
 
     
REQUIRED TEXTS   RESOURCES
Course Readings
(available as pdf downloads)
   Boilercast of this class (click on 'BoilerCast File Access')
Course Web Site and Guide to Theory
(available here)
   Purdue On-Line Writing Lab (OWL)
The episodes and films listed below
(also available at HIKS Reserves)		   OWL's Guide to using MLA Format in Citation
    Sample Mid-Term Questions
   

Best Responses from the Spring '03 Mid-Term
    Best Responses from the Fall '03 Mid-Term
    Examples of Incorrect Grammar and Style
   

'A' Papers from Spring 2003:

on Buffy, "Once More, With Feeling"
on Buffy, "The Body"
on The Matrix
on X-Files, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space"
   

A Sample Final Exam (in pdf format)
GRADE DISTRIBUTION
20%—Class Participation 25%—Final Paper  
15%—Mid-Term 25%—Final Exam  
15%—First Paper    
 
COURSE POLICIES
Click Here

 

CELL ONE:

FILL IN THE X; OR, THE ABCs OF NARRATOLOGY

In these first weeks, I will introduce students to the basic structures of narrative form, specifically the distinction between "story" and "discourse" and between the "proairetic and hermeneutic codes" of narrative. Students will also begin to analyze film, thus becoming familiar with those terms from film theory that we will build on over the course of the semester. A number of pop cultural shows and one experimental film (La jetée) will serve to help us in our exploration of the narrative limitations of human consciousness.

 

CELL TWO:

PSYCHOANALYSIS, FEMINISM, AND THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

In this next block of classes, we will build on our discussion of Brooks by continuing our exploration of psychoanalytical concepts, specifically those of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Julia Kristeva. Througout, Buffy will be our guide since Joss Whedon, the show's creator, self-consciously incorporates both Freudian and Lacanian elements into his Buffyverse.We will also take this opportunity to discuss the influence of Lacan on both feminism and contemporary film theory.

CELL THREE:

SCIENCE FICTION AND THE POSTMODERN CONDITION

In this next block of classes, we will examine a number of science-fiction examples that explore our current age, which has been termed by many "postmodernity." We will explore the various elements of our current "postmodern condition," including computer culture, image culture, media culture, pop culture, and multiculturalism. Alongside the films, we will be reading some of the most influential postmodern theorists of the last decade. In so doing, we will explore a number of concepts that have been used to understand our age, including pastiche, parody, the simulacrum, and the cyborg.

 

CELL FOUR:

THEORIZING FIGHT CLUB

In this last section, we will apply the various theories we have learned on David Fincher's film, Fight Club. The film invites a reading through each of the theories discussed so far: Narratology, Psychoanalysis, theories of gender and sex, Postmodernism, and theories of ideology. By applying each of the theories discussed this semester, these next weeks will serve as hands-on practice for the final exam.

chariot race

 

 

Course Directives

Introductory Guide to Critical Theory




 

Last Revised: December 9, 2008

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