(In place of "Technology and Art in Heidegger," the following course will be offered in Q4-2019):
WHAT MONSTERS DOES TECHNOLOGY MAKE? FROM FRANKENSTEIN'S TO GODZILLA
Is technology all good? Does it always help create a better world, a better life? Does human ingenuity sometimes go out of control, producing the monstrous or deinon (the sublime), the most beautiful and most terrible things? Do human beings then become slaves to their creations? In addressing these questions, visionary authors have created scary monsters in their works to symbolize the unintended consequences of technological innovations, scientific endeavors, and human over-cleverness in general. These also warn how technology may become an uncontrollable force, bringing about catastrophes, disruption, destruction, fear, and angst.
This course will study the literary critique and questioning of technology and science through notorious monsters such as Leviathan, Frankenstein’s Monster, Mr. Hyde, and Godzilla. It will explore the original stories and literature where they first appeared and their subsequent evolution in the popular imagination into symbols and metaphors that warn of technology’s potential threats -DDT to nuclear energy, GM foods to cloning. We watch Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein create life, observe Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Goethe’s Faust grasping for knowledge and power, see Robert L. Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde exchanging identities, land on H. G. Well’s sinister Island of Doctor Moreau, finally viewing the sea monster Godzilla (1954) sinking ships and attacking Tokyo. We will also reflect on the more recent story of the long-extinct dinosaurs brought to life in Jurassic Park.
Purpose: To highlight in more accessible ways the unintended consequences of science and technology, the uncertainty and potential dangers of technological contrivances. To make students familiar with the original stories of the monsters and how they evolved to ideas and metaphors symbolizing technological enterprises going out of control and threatening human life and nature. To make the study and questioning of science and technology more appealing.
Be able to question technology and science, and critique freely and effectively their unintended consequences. Be better acquainted with well-known stories of monsters symbolizing technology going out of human control, scientific and technological innovations and enterprises threatening human life and nature. Be familiar with the related metaphors and terms.
Technology, creativity, evil, monster, knowledge, power, pride, immortality, control, virtue, fame, social responsibility, fear, destruction; Mad Scientist, the Faustian Bargain, Frankenstein’s Monster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Godzilla, Jurassic Park
✔ Specialist skills | ✔ Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
Format: Conducted generally in a lecture style and when possible in seminar style.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Thinking of science and technology through monsters | None |
Class 2 | Faust and the Faustian Bargain | Goethe, Faust. |
Class 3 | Frankenstein’s Monster I | Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. |
Class 4 | Frankenstein’s Monster II | Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. |
Class 5 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | R.L. Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
Class 6 | Doctor Moreau | H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau |
Class 7 | Godzilla | Godzilla (1854) |
Class 8 | Jurassic Park | Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park |
None
1- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818; revised edition in 1831)
2- Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
3-Cristopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (written between 1589 and 1592; 1620)
4- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (Faust I in 1808, and Faust II in 1832)
5- H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
6- Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park (1990)
Audio-Visual (not complete):
Godzilla (original film in 1854, directed by Ishirō Honda)
Based on attendance, performance, and writing assignments (short essays); roughly %80 for participation and performance, and %20 for writing assignments.
None
One hour after every class. Other times by appointment by email or call.