FYSP 018 - Red Futures: Exploring Soviet Science Fiction

FC SSCI WINT

4 credits
The grand upheavals of the October Revolution did not just involve the radical transformation of social relations and economic conditions in the here-and-now. The Soviet experiment was also deeply concerned with the future–imagining new horizons of human possibility through grand political theories, novel practices of everyday life, and (interestingly enough) the vehicle of speculative fiction. This seminar is an introduction to historical analysis and academic writing through the study of Soviet science fiction. By engaging with secondary literatures and primary texts (cinema, politics, prose) we will develop our scholarly toolkits as we explore what it might mean to investigate the history of the future.