Film Studies 243 - TRANSNATL/TRANSMEDIA SCI-FI
Fall
2016
01
4.00
Andrew Ritchey
MW 02:40-04:00; T 07:00-10:00
Smith College
21520-F16
SEELYE 201; SEELYE 201
aritchey@smith.edu
Perhaps no genre has addressed the prospect of the world's end more fully than science fiction. In many science fiction narratives, the end of the world spells disaster. A future is imagined in which sinister forces threaten the continuation of life as we know it. In other narratives, leaving the world behind may represent a kind of liberation: from the tedium of everyday life, or from oppressive contemporary social and political systems. This course presents a series of investigations focused on compelling moments, themes and expressions within the wider universe of science fiction. Each case study enables us to imagine the world's end from a different perspective. Each also demands that we carry out our investigation across and between various forms of media.