Cultural Studies

Code:

MEAAM007

Acronym:

ECUL

Instance: 2012/2013 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Masters in Anglo-American Studies

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
EAAL	0	Course Programme	1	-	8	3
MEAA	12	Study Plan since 2007/2008	1	-	8	3

Teaching language

English

Objectives

The programme’s general objective is to provide students with the information and the suitable conceptual tools for an understanding of the way utopia and science-fiction have influenced the popular Anglo-American imagination of the 20th century with the idea of a terrifying future. Its particular aim is to offer students the theoretical and critical tools that will enable them to analyse the corpus which has been defined for this curricular unit within the framework of Intermediality Studies (in its intersection with Spatiality Studies). The programme will provide students with specific skills,
theoretical information and conceptual tools that will enable them, at the end of the seminar, to understand and to critically read other works of the same period.

Program

Utopia, Science-fiction and Popular Culture: An Intermediality Studies Approach


In the 20th century, utopia and science-fiction took hold of the popular Anglo-American imagination, working through a diversity of means and leading to the association of these concepts with scenarios of a hopeless future. The War of the Worlds (1898), by H. G. Wells, and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, are the most paradigmatic examples, not only because of the critical reception they had, but also because of the variety of adaptations that have been done from their texts. In this seminar, the following adaptations will be analysed:

The War of the Worlds: adaptations to the radio (Orson Welles, 1938), to the cinema (George Pal, 1953; Timothy Hines, 2005; 2011; David Michael Latt, 2005, Steven Spielberg, 2005) and to the graphic novel (Ian Edginton & D’Israeli, 2006).

Nineteen Eighty-Four: adaptations to the Cinema (Michael Anderson, 1956; Michael Radford, 1984) and to TV (BBC, 1954).

In both cases, there will also be considered, albeit with less attention, the influence these works had on the world of music (e.g., Sexcrime”, Eurythmics, 1984), of the video-games and of reality shows.

The programme is divided into three parts, which correspond to three different moments in the planning of this seminar:

Part I – Analysis and discussion of the fundamental texts of the fields of Utopian Studies, Science-Fiction Studies and Intermediality Studies (in its intersection with Spatiality Studies).

Part II – Intermedial approach to The War of the Worlds (1898), by H. G. Wells, and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, within the conceptual framework defined in Part I.

Part III – Presentation of the individual research work: students will apply the conceptual tools used in Part II to other coeval works.

Mandatory literature

Wells, H. G.; The Time Machine. The War of the Worlds., Orion, 2004
Orwell, George; Nineteen Eighty-Four, Penguin, 2000. ISBN: 0-14-118247-4

Complementary Bibliography

Claeys, Gregory 340; The^Cambridge companion to utopian literature. ISBN: 978-0-521-71414-3

Teaching methods and learning activities

Teaching will be centred on the students, offering them an opportunity to understand the contents of the programme by debating the main issues and by carrying out individual and / or group activities.

keywords

Humanities
Humanities > Literature > European literature > Germanic literature > English literature

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	39,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Description	Type	Time (hours)	End date
Study	Estudo autónomo	177
	Total:	177,00

Eligibility for exams

a)active participation in the seminar;
b)oral and written presentation of a research paper on one of the works of the list prepared by the teacher.


Note: Students are expected to attend at least 75% of the seminar sessions.

Calculation formula of final grade

The final mark will be based on the following evaluation components:

-Active participation in seminars -20%;
- A written essay to be discussed at the end of the semester - 80%

Examinations or Special Assignments

n/a

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

n/a

Classification improvement

n/a

Observations

Language of instructions: Portuguese of English, according to the characteristics of the students.