Module description
Students must have taken module 5AAEB005 Cultural Encounters: Literature and Language in the Anglo Saxon Period to take this module
Science fiction is one of the most vital and visible elements of popular culture today. Theories and debates concerning the ‘origins’ or ‘prehistory’ of the science fiction genre continue to rage without consensus on just where, or with what, SF has its beginnings. For some, science fictional elements can be detected in works as temporally distant as The Odyssey or Lucian of Samosata’s second-century A True History; for others, the genre begins with Shelley’s Frankensteinor with the explosion of the pulp magazines in the early twentieth century.
At first glance, the terms ‘medieval’ and ‘science fiction’ do not belong together. But this incompatibility is based on a number of deeply ingrained popular assumptions that this course will seek to question, examine and unravel through an exploration of a diverse range of pre-modern and modern ‘science fictional’ texts. Travelling through time from the ‘knowledge fictions’ of the Beowulf manuscript to the age of Chaucer, we will investigate the ways in which medieval literature may have engaged with the potentialities of ‘medieval science’, while also assessing the extent to which works of modern science fiction can illuminate their medieval counterparts.
This module will provide an overview of science fiction criticism and its history. It will also consider what form ‘scientific’ endeavours took on in the Middle Ages and how these might have informed the ‘fiction’ of the time; it will place modern and pre-modern texts in critical conversation in order to rethink the history and future history of the genre and of the book. Most of all, this course will develop new insights into a diverse selection of medieval texts and illuminations, and, through these, will allow students to explore critical and theoretical topics such as periodization, otherness, space and place, and the possibilities and problems of genre fiction.
Assessment details
1 x 1000 word mid-semester writing exercise (15%); 1 x 2000 word end-semester critical essay (85%)
Educational aims & objectives
- To engage with critical debates about theories, definitions and histories of science and ‘science fiction’
- To examine the ways in which literary genres (fantasy and science fiction) are equated with historical epochs (medieval, modern), or with the future
- To question popular assumptions and misconceptions about the Middle Ages
Learning outcomes
- To gain an understanding of the limits and ramifications of genre and periodization
- To gain a good level of knowledge about the history of science, the history of science fiction, and to be able to disseminate knowledge about diverse forms of discourse through both oral and written modes of communication
- To be able to critically examine and discuss a range of medieval texts and manuscripts from theoretical perspectives
- To be able to research and discuss critically developments in modern genre fiction, and to be able to write from a research-informed perspective about the ways in which literary texts respond to scientific material and scientific possibility.
Teaching pattern
1 hour lecture and 1 hour seminar weekly
Suggested reading list
It is recommended that students purchase the The Beowulf Manuscript, ed. R D. Fulk (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010) which contains modern English translations of Alexander’s Letter and The Wonders of the East. Critical writings on the science fiction genre will be provided, as will those texts rarely available as stand-alone editions, such as The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, the writings on the Green Children and the Old English version of the Seven Sleepers. In addition, the SF Masterworks edition of Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book and any modern edition of C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra should be acquired.