Course: ENGL 700: Seminar–Dystopian Literature and Film
Professor: Dr. Thomas Horan
Location: The Citadel
Time: Thursday 7:00 – 9:45
Room: TBA
The mid-twentieth century saw the emergence of parallel movements in dystopian literature and film. While the novel is the classic dystopian form, cinematic narratives immerse audiences in political worldviews that address the various crises of contemporary times. This course will put these concurrent artistic forms of sociopolitical speculation in dialogue, assessing how they address societal concerns, anxieties, inequities, and threats, as well as how they allow for the possibility of hope.
Through analytical reading, viewing, writing, and conversation, we will examine how influential works from these related media inform and challenge audiences. While some attention will be given both to film studies and applicable literary trends, the course will focus primarily on the common thematic content of these nightmarish scenarios. Films will include Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1932), Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965), George Lucas’s THX 1138 (1971), Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames (1983), Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997). Following a similar timeline, we will read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which have both been adapted for the screen multiple times, Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975), Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents (1998), and Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts (2017).
Comments are closed.