First Year Seminar: Time Travel & Narrative
Times
Tuesday, 2 pm - 4 pm
Instructor Information
T. Dancer
Course Description
From H.G. Wells to Star Trek to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, tales of time travelers remain captivating. What does our fascination with time travel tell us about storytelling and narrative? This course will explore the questions that time travel raises about narrative as well as history, temporality, subjectivity, and agency. We will look at examples of time travel in film, television, and books as well as philosophical and scientific writing about it.
Required Readings
- Possible readings/viewings include: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Star Trek IV, Back to the Future
- Television Episodes: Star Trek, Doctor Who, The Venture Bros., Futurama, Rick & Morty
- Novels: H.G. Wells, Connie Willis, Ryōsuke Takeuchi, Haruki Murakami
First Three Authors/Texts
- H.G. Wells
- Back to the Future
- Futurama
Methods of Evaluation
- Quizzes (20%)
- Reading Journal (30%)
- Written Analysis (20%)
- Participation (20%)
- Presentation (10%)