Special Topics in Literature
LIT 290S
Imagining Technology
No Prerequisites
We often assume technology is universal, cutting across cultures—but is it? Why is U.S. science fiction filled with AI takeover fears while Soviet robots appear as loyal companions? How do Japanese cyborgs challenge Western ideas of sexuality? How did the same digital devices symbolize oppression for the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s yet become tools of liberation during Twitter revolutions? Why did industrial machines inspire utopias in the USSR and dystopias in Weimar Germany? What insights into digital media can Chinese sci-fi or Afrofuturism bring? Through films and theory, this class explores how culture shapes our vision of technology and guides technological development.
Topics vary by semester.
