17475

Visions of the Future: Utopia and Dystopia in ELT (mit GS)

Katja Heim

Kommentar

Visions of the future highlight our wishes, fears, and views on the world. When it comes to literature, which portrays such visions, it also reflects societal trends at the time of writing, often coupled with references to historical recurrence. Analytical and creative approaches to engaging with such literature help to view society via different lenses and help to think through the potential consequences of societal trends and decision-making.

In this course, we will choose together which dystopian novels we would like to look at more closely. Books that could be decided on are, for example, frequently read novels, such as The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood), The Hunger Games (Collins), The Circle (Eggers), or The Giver (Lowry). We will read extracts from different books throughout the course and will also include multimodal sources, such as film and art works. In addition, each of you will engage with one chosen dystopian or utopian novel within a group and will, by the end of the course, have developed and presented a complex competence task for using the book in class. You will need to purchase this one chosen book. All other texts will be provided via Moodle. While the theme of this course is classically taught at higher secondary level, it is also relevant for younger learners. Future primary school teachers will also be able to work with future-related picturebooks and other, more easily understandable texts for younger learners.

Parts of this course will be taught online. Dates for on-site and online sessions will be announced in class. The first two sessions will be on-site.

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