Sociology and Criminology

Speculative Fictions and the Critique of Our Present (Spr)

Module code: L2900B
Level 6
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay

This module offers a critical reading of a set of twentieth century speculative and science fiction (SSF) texts, focusing predominantly on short stories and novels, but also touching upon other visual media such as movies and TV series. Throughout the weeks, we will examine how various prominent writers – e.g. Ursula le Guin, Philip K. Dick, Ted Chiang, Margaret Atwood among others – articulate a range of social and political concerns in relation to topics such as: critique of the capitalist mode of production, time and (biopolitical) governance, gender and sexuality, dystopias, alternative political systems, questions of reality perception and simulation, determinism and free will, mental health and regimes of normativity, ecological crises, just to mention a few. In examining and discussing the SSF works selected, the module will consider the specificity of the SSF genre when posing critical questions about our and other possible worlds in addition to the relation between theory and fiction. In other words, it will analyse SSF as a ‘minor literature’ capable of providing fundamental insights in social theory and cultural analysis, as well as providing a methodological challenge in approaching a work of literature as a tool-box to advance what Foucault called a “history of the present”.

Module learning outcomes

  • Demonstrate the knowledge and analytical understanding of key concepts in social theory and cultural analysis presented in the fictional texts selected.
  • Apply their understanding of the relation between cultural production and the conditions of its production to specific cases and debates.
  • Critically interpret social, political, economic issues and debates in light of the insights that SSFs offer.
  • Advance ways of analysing the features of our capitalist contemporaneity with a theoretically informed reading of different forms of (SSF) cultural products.