Speculative Fiction at its very base asks "What if?" and creates storyworlds based on that question that deviate from our real world in significant ways. Whether science fiction or fantasy, utopian or dystopian, speculative storyworlds ask their readers to engage in imagining worlds that are different, and the potential consequences of such a difference.
Young Adult consumers are perhaps a prime audience for such stories, and recent decades have seen the rise of several popular franchises of young adult speculative fiction, as well as standalone media or novels. In this course we will discuss approaches to studying speculative fiction for young adults, but also talk about the politics of these fictive storyworld and the identities therein, as well as their relation to our world. This reading-intense course will range from fairy tales to contemporary texts such as The Hunger Games.
- Dozent/in: Maxi Albrecht