Syllabus Master Grammar of Science Fiction Movie Productions

Language & Cultural Studies

Media Issues: Grammar of Science Fiction Movie Productions

Spring 2011.

Instructor: Dr. Mircea Naidin.

Course hours: Monday, 08.00 – 10.00 am. I will also be available immediately before and after class.

Contact: mobile: 0754.674.900; e-mail: naidinmircea@yahoo.com

What is this course about?

What makes a Science Fiction movie a Science Fiction movie? What images, sounds, and thematic concerns are revisited over and over again in Science Fiction movies? How have Science Fiction movies evolved over time in response to political and social conditions while still remaining a coherent genre? These questions and more will be addressed in this course.

“Science Fiction Movie/Film” has two meanings in this class. First, it means we treat films as text: studying theme, character, plot structure, etc. as well as uniquely filmic qualities like camera angle, color, and special effects. Second, it means we study some of the films in relationship to the literary works which inspired them.

Since Science Fiction has traditionally been viewed as marginal (a site of engagement apart from regular culture), it has provided a relatively “safe” space for individuals to imagine alternative realities. In other words, Science Fiction is inherently political, reflecting, reflecting on, and even reconstructing the material world outside the frame and the screen. Thus, we will be especially interested in reading Science Fiction films in their social contexts from the Cold War paranoia of 1950s sci-fi to the ecological obsessions of the 1970s, to the gender remodeling of the 80s, to the postmodern entropy of the 1990s and beyond.

Course no. 1: Welcome to the class. 1. Science Fiction’s Multiple Births in the Modern Age. 2. Definitions of SF: SF in search of

an identity; criteria for defining SF; types of definitions; historical and critical perspectives.

Course no. 2: 1. “Sense of wonder” in Science...