Nov 23, 2024  
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

US 290 Science Fiction, Fantasy & the Environment

This course explores the ecological vision of selected fantasy and science fiction works (both literature and film).  As a class, we will investigate how the alternate views of the environment presented in works of fantastic fiction encourage us to rethink our assumptions regarding the human-made problems affecting our environment today.  We also use these works to examine our personal relationship towards the environment and consider the duty we have, if any, to help preserve and protect the world around us.  Can fantastic fiction spur real world action?  We will attempt to answer this question by reading excerpts from The Lord of the Rings and works by Ursula K. Leguin, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Ray Bradbury, among others.  We will also watch several visual works, including the movie Soylent Green and Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.