ENGL 389 - Sci-Fi Film Golden Age to Cyberpunk

Credits: (3)
This course serves as an introduction to Film Studies by exploring the development of science fiction films, from early examples such as Georges Méliès’s 1902 Le Voyage dans la Lune and Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis through Golden Age classics such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to iconic legends such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Our class places particular emphasis on what is arguably the high point of science fiction film, the 1980s, including careful study of Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), and Akira (1988). We’ll consider several approaches to film, including reflectionist theories, auteur theory, and psychoanalytic approaches as well as the current set of critical concerns, which focus on film as a medium, conceptions of audience, race and gender, and affect theory.