Courses

Science Fiction as a genre was established at the turn of the 20th century, partly, as a medium through which to envision a future beyond capitalism, in other words, as a means to envision socialism. Some of the genre’s foundational tracks in both the United States and Russia made for important discussions on this question. With the advent of the Cold War, science fiction continued to provide an important venue in both the East and the West for imagining liberal and socialist futures and for making critiques of liberal and socialist presents. Historians of the Cold War routinely invoke an almost existential battle between capitalism and socialism as the core of the object of their study: the Cold War. But they rarely show much understanding or interest in what these two systems were historically. This course follows science fiction writing in both East and West to develop a more grounded understanding of the Cold War as a battle between two systems than that provided by Cold War historians. It will provide a schematic history of the Cold War, while fronting questions of historiography as well as those of social thought arising from science fiction texts.