Cédric Weidmann: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2022 |
| Name | Dr. Cédric Weidmann |
| cedric.weidmann@gess.ethz.ch | |
| Department | Humanities, Social and Political Sciences |
| Relationship | Lecturer |
| Number | Title | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 851-0304-00L | Science Fiction  | 3 credits | 2S | A. Kilcher, C. Weidmann | |
| Abstract | In the age of mechanization, “scientific romances” (H.G. Wells) emerged, which amplify the new possibilities of knowledge in distant futures and foreign worlds. In the seminary, these are to be contextualized in terms of the history of knowledge as well as politics. We also discuss theories of science fiction, with their euphoric or critical reflections on hypertechnical societies. | ||||
| Learning objective | - Concept and history of science fiction - Theory of science fiction and related forms (e.g. utopia, fantasy) - Contexts of the history of knowledge and technology in the 19th and 20th centuries. - Potential of science fiction to criticise technology and society | ||||
| Content | What became a popular genre of film - reinforced by digital techniques - has its beginnings in literature around 1900: the fictional imagination of scientific and technical future worlds. In the midst of the age of industrialization and mechanization, “scientific romances” (H.G. Wells) were created, which combine natural science and fantasy and reflect new possibilities of knowledge in distant futures and alien worlds. It is not only about scientific-technical speculation (such as space travel, robots, AI, para-scientific experiments), but also about negotiating social and political alternatives, be it in an affirmative and utopian or in a critical and dystopian way. This fictitious exaggeration of scientification is to be examined in the seminar on the one hand historically, using literary examples and their historical contexts (from Jules Verne, HG Wells, Theodor Herzl, Kurd Laßwitz and Robert Kraft to Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Philip Dick and Ursula Le Guin, among others ). This brings into view scientific-technical as well as social, economic and political contexts (e.g. totalitarianism, socialism, cold war). Secondly, it is about theories of science fiction that reflect this genre from different perspectives and, using it symptomatically, arrive not only at general literary and scientific observations, but also at euphoric or critical considerations of hypertechnical societies (including Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Darko Suvin, Donna Haraway). | ||||