This module provides students with key skills of archival research, using the University’s excellent resources in the area, as well as encouraging them to consider how “the archive” can manifest more conceptually through sf writing. Its assessments encourage the acquisition of skills in presenting information suitable for different audiences.

(LO1) Students will be able to demonstrate advanced skills in textual analysis of a range of science fiction works with detailed attention to questions of genre, form and/or narrative structure

(LO2) Students will be able to analyse with a sophisticated conceptual grasp how science fiction texts engage with and inflect concepts such as archive, time, and their “contemporary” moment

(LO3) Students will be able to demonstrate a systematic understanding of ways in which science fiction texts are historically and culturally situated, reflecting their time and/or place of production

(LO4) Students will be able to critically engage with academic research and/or theoretical discourses, and relate these to specific science fiction texts

(LO5) Students will be able to demonstrate practical working knowledge of a specific aspect of a major archival collection, and its relevance to the field

(S1) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Academic writing (inc. referencing skills)

(S2) Critical thinking and problem solving - Critical analysis

(S3) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Presentation skills – oral

(S4) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Listening skills

(S5) Information skills - Critical reading

(S6) Research skills - All Information skills

(S7) Skills in using technology - Using common applications (work processing, databases, spreadsheets etc.)

(S8) Research skills - Awareness of /commitment to academic integrity

Whilst the specific texts discussed might change annually, the core topic areas covered will not. The first four sessions of the module introduce students to the archival holdings of the University of Liverpool, specifically in relation to sf; the second four sessions of the module interrogate the relationship between the text and the archive through readings of specific sf texts, considering areas such as sf representations of the archive, historical representations of the future, the sf text as archive of genre/culture, (future) archival technologies, and incorporating broader themes such as memory & forgetting, power, the future versus the contemporary, and time. Indicative authors include Margaret Atwood, Alastair Reynolds, Olaf Stapledon, and John Wyndham.

Teaching Method 1 - Tutorial
Description: 4 * 1 hr session in Special Collections and Archives
Attendance Recorded: Yes

Teaching Method 2 - Seminar
Description: 4 * 2 hr session
Attendance Recorded: Yes