Russ,East European,Eurasian St 273 - COLD WAR SCIENCE FICTION

Same as CLT 273. How did the “final frontier” of space become a “front” in the Cold War? As the US and USSR competed in the Space Race, science fiction reflected political discourses in literature, film, visual art, and popular culture. This course explores Russian and Western science fiction in the contexts of twentieth-century geopolitics and artistic modernism (and postmodernism), examining works by Bogdanov, Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Butler, Haraway, Pelevin, and others. The survey considers science fiction’s utopian content and political function, as well as critical and dystopian modes of the genre. No prerequisites or knowledge of Russian required; first-year students are welcome to enroll.