Media, science fiction and Cold War - JKB247

• Title: Media, science fiction and Cold War
• Czech title: Média, science fiction a Studená válka
• Guaranteed by: Department of Media Studies (23-KMS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2024
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:combined
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 25 / unknown (25)
• Min. number of students: 10
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: Györgyi Rétfalvi, Ph.D.; prof. MgA. Martin Štoll, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): prof. MgA. Martin Štoll, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses for incoming students

Annotation

The course introduces students to the realm of a special segment of popular culture in a
historical context. The late history of humanity,
from the second part of the 20th century, the advance of the Cold War greatly impacted on the special segment of popular culture,
the Science Fiction film.
As the media technology developed between 1945-1990, the nuclear threat,
the arm and space race also inspired film and television directors to tell stories about a potential future.
Great movies born inside the Western and inside the Eastern block too.
How the different periods of Cold War (Thaw, Détente, etc.) thematized Science Fiction is the topic of this course.

Last update: Rétfalvi Györgyi, Ph.D. (30.09.2024)

Course completion requirements

Requirements and tasks: 50%: on class participation and tasks, sci-fi movies and interpretations 50%: End of term essay Final grade spectrum: A: 91-100 B: 81-90 C: 71:80 D: 61:70 E: 51:60 Fail: less than 51

Last update: Štoll Martin, prof. MgA., Ph.D. (04.09.2024)

Literature

OBLIGATORY READINGS

1. David Seed, American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film? Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

2. Sibelan Forrester and Yvonne Howel, Introduction: From Nauchnaia Fantastika to Post-Soviet Dystopia, Slavic Review, Vol 72. 2013, pp. 219-223.

3. John Lukacs, A Short History of the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, 2013.

4. Larry McCaffery, Storming the Reality Studio, Duke University Press, 1991.

RECOMMENDED SOURCES

1. John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture, Routledge

2. Henry Jenkins, Science Fiction and the Civic Imagination: Whose Future Does Science Fiction Foretell?, 2017. https://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/05/science-fictionand-the-civic-imagination-whose-future-does-science-fiction-foretell-part-one.html

Last update: Štoll Martin, prof. MgA., Ph.D. (04.09.2024)

Teaching methods

The course is combination of offline and online classes.

Last update: Štoll Martin, prof. MgA., Ph.D. (04.09.2024)

Syllabus

1. Historical context: Cold War

2. Science fiction as a genre: topics and sub-genres in popular culture

3. Science fiction on different platforms: (books) film, television and streaming

4. Short history of science fiction film from Aelita, queen of Mars to 3 Body Problem

5. Nuclear apocalipse and nuclear anxieties in the Cold-War era sci-fi films

6. Alien Invasion as metaphors for communist threats

7. Science fiction and propaganda

8. The Space Race and its influence on Sci-fi cinema

9. Post-apocaliptic genre: cyberpunk in East and West

10. Post-Cold War dystopia

11. The legacy of Cold War tensions in contemporary sci-f

Last update: Štoll Martin, prof. MgA., Ph.D. (04.09.2024)