RWA7: Science Fiction Across Media

We have dedicated almost half of our course to reading, studying, and thinking about 20th c. science fiction in print media.  While our next three classes will be dedicated to a consideration of science fiction in non-print media with a focus on film media, given the short amount of time we have to dedicate to this exploration, there is no way it will be as thorough as even our introductory investigation of print-based 20th c. science fiction in the U.S.  Nevertheless, we all know how important non-print media is to the genre of science fiction and it is my hope that you will continue your study of that subject in future classes.

For this unit, I hope to give you some basic information about how to read a film and what some of the differences are in analyzing print-based, or verbal, and film-based, or visual, texts.  To that end, I have put together some readings that will help lay out the basic terminology for analyzing films and a few of the key issues involved in such an analysis.

Overall, we will continue to use our “What, How, Why, So What?” Model of Textual Description, Analysis, and Interpretation even though the texts we will be studying are films, not printed short stories.  While several “Elements of Fiction,” can be used to discuss non-print texts, when it comes to the technical analysis of film and how meaning is constructed in film, there are significant differences across media.  I leave it up to you to decide how involved in learning about and understanding the “Elements of Film” you wish to be.  Should you decide to use a non-print text as the focus for your final project, you may need to become quite involved with these elements.  However, if you do not decide to do that, I invite you to dedicate your time in this unit to thinking about the similarities and differences between print and non-print media in relation to what you already know about the “Elements of Fiction” and the properties and affordances of verbal language.

For our next class, please read  “The Language of Film” by Michael Wohl (2008), re-read Philip K. Dick’s short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” and watch and take notes on Total Recall (1990).  Afterwards, in your Reading Journal, please write about your experience of watching this film after reading the story, paying particular attention to the SIMILARITIES and DIFFERENCES between the How and Why of the texts in different media and your experiences of reading each.  Finally, for the purpose of class discussion, please choose one scene from the story to discuss in relation to the film.

One thought on “RWA7: Science Fiction Across Media

  1. For our class on Wednesday, we will be focusing on a discussion of the following scenes from the film: 1/ 18:00 – 20:24; 2/ 38:50 – 39:50; 3/ 44:00 – 46:15; 4/ 49:00 – 55:00; 5/ 56:00 – 60:20 ; 6/ 1:18:00 – 1:23:00. I also encourage all of you to re-read pp. 311- 319.

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