Science Fiction and Postmodernism (ENG4SFI)
School of Social Sciences - La Trobe University
Semester 2 / 2012

Texts

y separately published work icon Permutation City Greg Egan , St Leonards : Allen and Unwin , 1994 Z455855 1994 single work novel science fiction (taught in 2 units) 'In Permutation City Egan has said that his main goal was "to take the idea of conscious software - whether it's some kind of scanned human duplicate, or some AI created from scratch - and push it to its logical conclusion'." The story involves human identities being 'loaded into computer memory banks where they become virtual people' (Colin Steele, SF Commentary No 77, p.53).
Ubik: Sf Masterworks No.26!$!Ubik: Sf Masterworks No.26!$!!$!!$!
Perdido Street Station!$!Mieville!$!!$!!$!
Hard-boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World (Vintage Classic)!$!Huraki Murakami!$!!$!!$!
Pattern Recognition!$!Gibson!$!!$!!$!
Neuromancer!$!Gibson, William!$!!$!!$!
Scanner Darkly!$!Dick!$!!$!!$!
Dawn!$!Butler!$!!$!!$!
Consider Phlebas!$!Banks, Iain!$!!$!!$!
Terminal Beach!$!Ballard!$!!$!!$!

Degrees

Bachelor of Arts

Description

Frederic Jameson has said that cyberpunk, a genre of recent SF, is "henceforth, for many of us, the supreme literary expression if not of postmodernism, then of late capitalism itself". In this course, we will test the ramifications and the validity of his remark. The seminars will move back and forth between recent critism (Marxist, feminist and poststructuralist) and recent SF (cyberpunk, feminist, humanist) to investigate whether each can illuminate the other.

Assessment

One 1,500 word essay on a topic involving close comparison of a theoretical essay and a novel 40

One 2,500 word essay on a more general topic involving Science Fiction and postmodernism 60

Other Details

Offered in: 2011
Current Campus: Bundoora
Levels: Undergraduate
Coordinator:
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