Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Study of the relation of literature and media (manuscript, print, visual, aural, digital, and/or oral) within their cultural and/or performative contexts. May be further organized by methodology (e.g. book history, textual scholarship, media studies, adaptation studies, digital humanities), historical period, or genre. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught.

COURSE DETAILS:

“The end of the world as we know it”: Dystopia in fiction and film

As is well known, dystopian fiction is a huge and fast growing field -- so too, obviously, is dystopian film and television: witness Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale -- especially but not only in the category of young adult literature. In this course we will study the origin and development of dystopian fiction, looking at some classic dystopian stories that laid the foundation for our current century’s treatments of dystopia. The novels for this portion of the course are: We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. Then we will move on to consider two second generation dystopian works: Children of Men, by P. D. James, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick, both works that have been made into notable films.

We will look at both fiction and film. Our first three novels are about the authoritarian obliteration of individuals, where they can potentially lose not only their lives but also the worlds they are familiar with. Our last two novels are about two threats to humanity: extinction in one case (The Children of Men) and the loss of empathy in the other (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). We will read the novels and examine the films based on these novels. Any editions -- including electronic editions -- of these five works will be suitable. I will not order them to the SFU Bookstore; you will have to acquire them yourselves.

Extra material — short stories and short articles — will be provided at cost (no more than two or three dollars), or posted on Canvas. You will be be required to watch at least two, possibly three, films at home, unless they are short enough to screen in class. Updates will be posted on Canvas Announcements, but the course will be taught in-person. 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: