124182 VK BEd 08b.3: VK Cultural Studies for Language Teachers (2021W)

Content
Narrative literacy today means teaching with not only literature but also graphic fiction, visual film media and computer games. This class works with different narrative forms to explore the representation of human relationships with other species, technology and Artificial Intelligence, through curriculum topics such as coming-of-age issues, relationships, cross-cultural communication, ethics and technology.

Our class texts invite us to consider how different narrative modes represent posthuman and nonhuman subjects, and how they engage the reading, viewing or playing participant in the issues of self-and-other that arise. In particular, we focus on how each narrative form frames the relationship between humans and sentient technology, and consider how perspective-taking devices foster empathy and self-identification to raise questions of responsibility towards technology and nonhuman others. Our stories break down assumed boundaries between human and nonhuman, such as living with strange inventions in Simon Stålenhag's graphic fiction (and Netflix series) Tales from the Loop, genetically-enhanced IQ in Young Adult novella Beggars in Spain, falling in love with Siri in the film Her, and playing as an android in Detroit: Become Human.
The course introduces students to analytical techniques appropriate to each of the multimedia forms, including narrative perspective, social semiotics and game theory.

Method & Aims
The course is highly participatory, containing teacher input, group discussions and peer presentations of the class primary and secondary sources. Students are expected to have watched the films and read the texts at least once before class starts. You can watch a walkthrough of Detroit: Become Human on Youtube or Twitch if you don’t want to play it (PS4 or PC). Students are encouraged to apply these interpretative tools to media texts of their choice in their final term papers. Students have the option to focus on how to teach these media forms in the EFL classroom.