Postgraduate Course: Contemporary Science Fiction (PG Version) (ENLI11233)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course focuses on contemporary literary science fiction and its representations and analyses of today's world. Although often setting its narratives in the future or an alternative reality, science fiction engages with contemporary pressures, problems and possibilities, extrapolating from the present to estrange and interrogate its ideas, beliefs and practices. This course introduces students to some of the most influential science fiction writing of the last thirty years, and encourages them to explore how it has depicted and explored the world we live in. Rather than focusing on the history and development of science fiction or attempting a complete survey of the current state of the field, this course will be idea-led: taking two or three key themes carefully specified at the beginning of the course (which might include such topics as identity, time, alterity, consciousness, the human, the posthuman, the alien, counter-factual history, virtual reality, simulation, etc.), it will ask students to discuss their presentation in contemporary science fiction. The literature will be read alongside arguments drawn from science, philosophy, politics and critical theory. Students will be encouraged to examine the way particular genres of science fiction (the short story or novel, 'hard' or 'soft' science fiction, cyberpunk and its cognate subgenres, space opera, utopian and dystopian fiction, etc.) find different means of depicting, exploring and putting into narrative the course's chosen themes. This course is taught jointly with undergraduate students. |
| Course description |
This course will allow students to examine the variety of ways in which science fiction literature explores contemporary ideas of who we are, how we engage in community, and how we respond to otherness. They will do so by reading and discussing some of the most influential and challenging science fiction texts of the last thirty years. These literary texts will be read in the light of critical and theoretical arguments as well as selected texts from philosophy, political theory, sociology and popular science writing. The ability to read literary and theoretical writing independently and with precision and confidence that students have gained from their prior study of English Literature will be essential for the successful completion of this course. Also, although not set as part of the course, students will have the opportunity to discuss other modes of science fiction (television, film, video games, etc.) in relation to the literature they are reading.
On the basis of students' preparatory reading, seminars will be used to discuss the literary, philosophical, psychological, social, cultural and political implications of different manners of writing science fiction. In order to fully prepare for these seminar discussions, students will be required to meet in advance in smaller 'autonomous learning groups' to produce material which will be presented to the class in a variety of forms (written reports posted to the course v.l.e., informal contributions to class discussion, or more formal verbal presentations during the seminar). Active preparation for and participation in class discussion is required, and will be assessed as a part of the student's overall performance on the course.
The structure of reading and analysis on the course is broadly comparative: students will be asked to explore the similarities and differences between the set texts, and examine the various types of analysis made possible by the critical and theoretical modes of reading to which they are introduced. The guided examination of the similarities and differences between the range of texts and approaches studied will help students to develop the analytical skills and knowledge that will be assessed in their essays.
The course is assessed by one essay, to be completed by week 12 of the course, and an assessment of students' participation in class and their autonomous learning groups. Written feedback will be provided on each element of assessment, and further oral follow-up feedback from the tutor will be available for anyone who would like it.
INDICATIVE READING LIST FOR 26/27 AY
Novels / Short-Story Collections:
Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games
Octavia Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories
Anne Charnock, Dreams Before the Start of Time
Noel Chidwick, ed., SF Caledonia: Anthology One
Linda Nagata, The Bohr Maker
Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
Charles Stross, Halting State
Short Stories:
Ted Chiang, 'Liking What You See: A Documentary'
Pippa Goldschmidt, 'Welcome to Planet Alba'
Alasdair Gray, 'The Crank That Made the Revolution'
Greg Egan, 'The Cutie' and 'Appropriate Love'
Ursula Le Guin, 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'
N.K. Jemisin, 'The Ones Who Stay and Fight'
Isabel J. Kim, 'Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole'
Stanislaw Lem, 'Trurl's Electronic Bard'
Sarah Pinsker, 'The Low Hum of Her'
Xia Jia, 'Tongtong's Summer'
Connie Willis, 'Even the Queen'
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students on LLC MSc programmes get first priority to this course. If you are not on an LLC programme, please let your administrator or the course administrator know you are interested in the course. Unauthorised enrolments will be removed. No auditors are permitted. |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
4,000 word essay (100%) |
| Feedback |
Students will receive detailed written feedback on their essay and their class participation. Optional follow-up sessions will be available for face-to-face consultation to help students understand the implications of this feedback, and to further explore ways in which future work might be enhanced. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Construct original, clear and coherent arguments about science fiction literature's depictions of contemporary ideas, institutions, practices and problems;
- Evaluate the ways in which different genres of science fiction writing make possible different modes of engagement with these;
- Analyse science fiction texts using recognised literary critical and critical theoretical methodologies to substantiate and illustrate those arguments;
- Extrapolate, evaluate and assess ideas from a range of non-literary sources in order to bring them to bear on their analyses of science fiction;
- Orally present the results of research undertaken individually and as part of a small group, respond judiciously to such research undertaken by others, and critically evaluate the importance of such material for an understanding of the chief themes of the course.
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
As an outcome of having studied this course, students will benefit from having developed a range of personal and professional skills commensurate with the range of SCQF Level 11 characteristics:
Knowledge and understanding: students will have had the opportunity to demonstrate their critical understanding of a range of the principal theories and concepts of literary analysis in relation to their reading and discussion of the course material;
Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding: in their work for class discussion, presentations and formal assessment tasks, students will have been able to practice the application of these theories and concepts in their construction of arguments about the course material;
Generic Cognitive Skills: in completing assessed essays and class presentations, students will have practised identifying, defining, conceptualising and analysing complex problems and issues germane to the discipline;
Communication: through participating in these tasks students will also have demonstrated the ability to communicate ideas and information about specialised topics in the discipline to an informed audience of their peers and subject specialists;
Autonomy and Working with Others: students will also have shown the capacity to work autonomously and in small groups on designated tasks, develop new thinking with their peers, and take responsibility for the reporting, analysis and defence of these ideas to a larger group. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Simon Malpas
Tel: (0131 6)50 3596
Email: Simon.Malpas@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lina Gordyshevskaya
Tel:
Email: pgordysh@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage