SHARE WITH STUDENTS: Spring Course in English! CEES 247 “Not Quite Human: New Forms of Life in Central & Eastern European Fiction and Film”
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CEES 247 "Not Quite Human: New Forms of Life in Central & Eastern European Fiction and Film"
The subjects of artificial intelligence, alien life forms, and the pursuit of a new kind of humanity fill creative works from Central and Eastern Europe––but where does this region’s fascination with these topics come from? Our course will investigate the role that strange or uncanny representations of humanity have played in a unique, revolutionary context, where attitudes toward labor, sexuality, and difference were constantly changing. While learning how Marxism, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis can give us insight into stories from Yuri Olesha, Carl Čapek, Franz Kafka, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Stanislaw Lem, we will investigate the afterlife and re-interpretation of these fictions in the work of Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Leguin, as well as in Soviet Sci-fi cinema.
Throughout our course, we will ask how fantastic narratives emerged alongside real revolutions, and if Sci-fi and Fantasy can propose solutions to real social problems.
Monday and Wednesday
3:00 - 4:15 pm
Dr. Matthew Kendall
kendallm@uic.edu