Science Fiction Film after 1973

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• contemporary examples of relevant films
• the debates rehearsed in those films
• the relationship between the audience and the text
• appropriate critical approaches
• issues of representation

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• show an awareness of the significance of social and historical context;
• investigate, discuss and write analytically about specific areas studied within the module
• investigate topic boundaries, and their relationship to other disciplinary frameworks
• investigate the relationship between the films and their audiences;
• communicate ideas and arguments effectively in writing

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• write critically, reflectively and accurately
• use a range of secondary material
• participate productively in academic debate

We will consider a variety of science-fiction films produced from 1973 onwards, to investigate how these imagined communities contribute to a ‘cognitive mapping’ of their contemporary social sphere, a symbolic site where diverse issues can be articulated and negotiated, such as those relating to culture, science, and corporate capitalism; the revisioning of gender and race; and the negotiation of identity through cyberpunk, globalisation and the transnational. A selection of relevant films might include: Outland (1981); Blade Runner (1982); Johnny Mnemonic (1995); Gattaca (1997); Starship Troopers (1997); The Matrix (1999);

eXistenZ (1999); Minority Report (2002).

The films will be examined with attention to their socio-historical contexts, genre, modes of representation, and audience response, as well as considering approaches based on Williams, Gramsci, Jameson, and Hall.

Teaching methods include

• lectures, used to introduce key issues
• seminars to discuss ideas and concepts
• screenings of relevant films

Learning activities include

• close reading and careful analysis of films
• individual research
• presenting ideas/examples to the rest of the seminar

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.