Intendierte Lernergebnisse
Students will gain an understanding of theories, forms, and representations of posthumanism as a cultural and transmedial phenomenon as well as of approaches to the study of digital narratives. They will learn to articulate how central ethical debates concerning AI and posthumanism are negotiated through fiction. Besides practicing their interpretative skills of narratives in different media (prose fiction, drama, IDN, film), they will also learn to engage critically with AI text production and to reflect on the impact this has on the field of English studies in general.
Lehrmethodik
in-depth discussions of textsshort lecture inputsoral group presentations/expert groups/student-led tasks
Inhalt/e
The status of the human and ‘our’ post-human future is one of the prevalent issues debated in contemporary culture, but it has engaged the literary imagination at least since the 19th century. It finds expression in texts and artworks across genres and media, and in new developments in the field of digital narratives, including computer-generated fiction and interactive forms such as neurocinema and video games. Meanwhile, the possibilities of bio-technological enhancement and genetic engineering ('cloning') continue to raise ethical questions. The same is true for relations between humans, animals, machines, and the environment, and the intersections with gender and race in perceptions of ‘the posthuman’. The first part of this class focusses on the human fascination with figures of the posthuman and intelligent machines in speculative fiction. Flanked by theoretical texts, our readings will include H.G. Wells’s classic sci-fi novella The Island of Dr Moreau (1896), Caryl Churchill’s play A Number (2002), and Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun (2021). In the second part, we will discuss examples of computer-generated fiction and other texts (e.g., poetry written by an algorithm, ChatGPT), as well as interactive digital narratives (IDN) which all challenge our conceptions of author, text, and reader (e.g. Angry River, a short film which uses eye-tracking technology, or experiments with interactive TV such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch).
Literatur
Wells, H.G. The Island of Dr Moreau (any edition)Ishiguro, Kazuo. Klara and the Sun (any edition)Please obtain your own copies of the novels. All other materials will be made available by the instructor on Moodle.