Spring 2024 Comparative Literature: English UN3776 section 001

A Pre-History of Science Fiction

A Pre-History of Science

Call Number 14874
Day & Time
Location
T 8:10am-10:00am
612 Philosophy Hall
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Alan Stewart
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

This undergraduate seminar course traces a possible pre-history of the genre we now know as science fiction.  While science fiction is routinely tracked back to the nineteenth century, often to Frankenstein or The Last Man by Mary Shelley, this course looks at some earlier literary writings that share certain features of modern science fiction: utopian and dystopian societies, space travel, lunar travel, time travel, the mad experimental scientist, and unknown peoples or creatures. While the center of this course features texts associated with the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century (by Bacon, Kepler, Godwin, and Cavendish), it ranges back to the second century Lucian of Sarosota, and forward to the early nineteenth century with novels by Shelley.

Web Site Vergil
Department English and Comparative Literature
Enrollment 9 students (18 max) as of 9:05PM Monday, December 2, 2024
Subject Comparative Literature: English
Number UN3776
Section 001
Division Interfaculty
Open To Barnard College, Columbia College, Engineering:Undergraduate, Global Programs, General Studies
Section key 20241CLEN3776W001