This site has moved to: https://courses.bowdoin.edu/italian-2500/

© Franco Brambilla, “Invading the Villa” (2009)

 This website accompanies
Ital. 2500: “World Science Fiction”
Prof. Arielle Saiber
Bowdoin College
Spring 2015, Spring 2020, Spring 2022

This course explores the local, global, and universal natures of the speculative genre of science fiction (SF) from the early twentieth century through the present. It highlights works from the Golden Age (late 1930s-’50s), the New Wave of the 1960s and ’70s, cyberpunk in the 1980s, and today’s various sub-genres and cross-over incarnations. We will approach the genre as a mode of thought-experimentation and world-building that problematizes actual and possible political, cultural, natural, human, and techno-scientific realities. Among the themes included are the human-machine interface, environmental apocalypse, the alien, and time travel.

Readings/viewings include short stories from nearly every continent, short films and tv episodes, visual art, journalism, and literary criticism.

With thanks to:
–Franco Brambilla for permission to use his artwork
-David Israel, Information Technology at Bowdoin
-Victoria Rea-Wilson (Bowdoin, ’14), Research Assistant
-Raisa Tolchinsky (Bowdoin, ’17), Research Assistant
-Bradford Dudley (Bowdoin, ’22)

Questions or suggestions may be sent to Arielle Saiber: [email protected]                     

The information on this website is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0.
The images are © Franco Brambilla.

How to Cite:
Arielle Saiber, World Science Fiction Course, Bowdoin College (2015, 2020)
https://courses.bowdoin.edu/ital-2500-spring-2015/