First Year Seminar 191HFA41 - FYS- Topics in HFA

First-year (R1ST) Topic-From The Twilight Zone to Black Mirror: TV, Cold War Culture & American Apocalyptic Imagination
Course description-This course explores The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) as a cultural and historical artifact of Cold War America, concluding by tracing its cultural afterlife through its more contemporary counterpart, Black Mirror (2011-2025). Throughout the course, we will engage questions such as: How did The Twilight Zone depict apocalypse not simply as physical destruction, but as moral, political, and social unraveling? What historical forces and anxieties shaped its narratives, and in what ways did the series both challenge and reproduce dominant assumptions of the Cold War era? What role does allegory play in shaping political consciousness, and how do speculative narratives help us grapple with debates about the past, the fragility of the present, and the uncertainty of the future?