Science, Ethics and Possible Futures in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema Peter Krämer Dates: Monday, 7 April 2025 Thursday, 10 April Monday, 14 April Thursday, 17 April (AFO week) Monday, 28 April Wednesday 30 April (because Thursday is 1 May holiday) Description: This course examines films (as well as one television series) which deal in diverse ways with science and technology, and in doing so map out possible, usually rather negative, futures for humanity. The focus is on works by three prominent writerdirectors: the Canadian James Cameron (Terminator 2: Judgment Day [1991] and Avatar [2009]), the BritishAmerican Christopher Nolan (Interstellar [2014] and Oppenheimer [2023]) and the Brit Alex Garland (Ex Machina [2014], Devs [2020] and Civil War [2024]). Looking closely at the behaviour of the protagonists and antagonists in these productions, how can one make sense of it and how might one judge it in moral terms? How do the films' fictional visions relate to scholarly prognoses about humanity's actual future (to do with artificial intelligence, nuclear war, the collapse of terrestrial ecosystems, space exploration, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the breakdown of democracy)? What is the connection between the ethics of fictional protagonists/antagonists and the shape of the fictional futures they inhabit? The course involves advance reading, screenings in class (as well as some home viewing), seminar discussions and homework carried out in small groups. The reading will provide some film historical context for the work of the above filmmakers, and also introduce students to ethics/moral philosophy (including sufferingfocused ethics) and to research into realworld (existential and suffering) risks for humanity. About the tutor: Peter Krämer is a Senior Research Fellow in Cinema & TV in the Leicester Media School at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), and a regular guest lecturer at several other universities in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. He is the author or editor of twelve academic books on Hollywood cinema and of a children's book entitled American Film: An A-Z Guide. For the last eight years he has been doing some guest teaching at Palacky University on topics ranging from Stanley Kubrick and Hollywood blockbusters to climate change & the movies as well as, most recently, 'Film, Philosophy and Philanthropy: Academic Work and Personal Ethics'.
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Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Projection (static, dynamic)
- Attendace
- 2 hours per semester
- Preparation for the Course Credit
- 6 hours per semester
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