Delivery method: Online learning with tutor support. 

Science fiction and Speculative (Counterfactual) fiction are two overlapping genres, which ask us to enter ‘other worlds, alternate worlds and societies. Ideas about the future; economic and social, developing science and technology, and the way humans organize themselves and behave, can be explored in imaginative and daring ways.   

Course Description

Science fiction and Speculative (Counterfactual) fiction are two overlapping genres, which ask us to enter ‘other worlds, alternate worlds and societies. Ideas about the future; economic and social, developing science and technology, and the way humans organize themselves and behave, can be explored in imaginative and daring ways.   

The course will look at the historical context, from Frankenstein, to authors such as H.G.Wells, Arthur.C.Clarke and Margaret Atwood. There will be a focus on social, feminist Sci-Fi, with a look at Margaret Atwood’s dystopian ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ 1985, and Ursula La Guin’s 1969 novel ‘Left Hand of Darkness’. Speculative, alternate history fiction will be looked at, with authors Philip K. Dick ‘The Man in the High Castle,’ and Philip Roth’s ‘The Plot against America’ 2004 studied, as well as English-based fantasy, such as Susanna Clarke’s ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel’, 2004.

This online learning course enables you to study from home and participate in an online community of other students learning about this topic. The module is delivered through Blackboard, our online learning environment. This module can be studied as a stand-alone course, but it is also an optional module for the Certificate of Higher Education in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.