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CS92PROD
The Word for World is Information: Ideologies of Language in Science Fiction & Film
COL 258
Spring 2021
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: ENGL 260

By the middle of the 20th century, it had begun to seem possible to produce a grand theory of communication that would use language as a basis for understanding all of human thought, behavior, and culture. As competing versions of such a theory circulated through academic disciplines as disparate as anthropology, neurophysiology, and the emerging field of computer science, they also filtered out--sometimes in strangely warped or oversimplified forms--into popular culture.

This course will examine the most interesting and influential of these theories, both in their scholarly origins and in their most puzzling and promising elaborations in works of literary and filmic science fiction. We will be particularly attentive to the ways that the narrative logic of science fiction texts can gloss over certain logical and philosophical inconsistencies in these theories while revealing others.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (COL)(CSCT)(ENGL)(ENGL-Literature)
Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89%

Last Updated on OCT-14-2024
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