Course Description:

Science fiction envisions “what ifs,” and that speculation is what makes it a superb site for consideration of gender alternatives.  In engaging with techno-science, science fiction expresses our cultural hopes and fears and forces us to take a closer look at our assumptions about what defines “man” and what defines “woman.”  By pushing what we consider the “norm,” science fiction expands what we see as possible, changing our views of reality, which is why Donna Haraway writes, “science fiction is political theory.”  In this course, we will focus on the uses of male and female bodies in science fiction film and literature to study how these texts expose and offer alternatives to our assumptions about gender.

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