This course is centered on finding political scenarios and debates in fictive texts. Politics is an integral part of many fictive texts, and often used to reflect real world issues, debates, and political scenarios. Many seminal works of science fiction, for example, extrapolate political issues like authoritarianism, surveillance, loss of privacy, ecologism, pacifism, militarism, and so on into contexts where they can be addressed in ways less suited for traditional political science. Indeed, these works often comment on the issues of their time through fiction.

During the course the students will receive weekly readings for analysis and reflection. After the course, the students are expected to better understand how politics can be presented in fiction, and how these fictional politics can be used to make sense of actual political events. The students will be more adept at spotting political scenarios and reconstructing them in various contexts. 

The language of the course is English, so students are expected to be reasonably proficient in reading and writing academic texts in this language. English degree programme students can join students of Political Science on the course for a richer mutual understanding of disciplines and the texts.

Enrollment via email to teacher responsible. Students admitted in order of registering, but political science students prioritized. Optimal group size is 20 students. Deadline for enrollment is 06.09.2017.

George Orwell: 1984, The Road to Wigan Pier

Aldolus Huxley: Brave New World

Unthinkable (2010), ohj. Gregor Jordan.

Moore, Thomas: Utopia

Le Guin, Ursula: The Disposessed, The Word for World is Forest

Active participation in the seminars, topical presentation in seminar, and essay (9-12 pages) for 5 ECTS.