Literary courses online: Earlier this year, the online eduction platform Coursera launched. In partnership with several US universities, Coursera offers free online courses in the fields of Computer Science, Medicine, Biology, Finance and Information, but also in Humanities and Social Science. The current course program also includes a literary course & a philosophic course, and a course on storytelling and the language of Hollywood:
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Starting Now: "Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World"
This week, Professor Eric Rabkin will start to his course on fantasy and science fiction again. Here's the short summary: "We understand the world — and our selves — through stories. Then some of those hopes and fears become the world. This course will explore Fantasy in general and Science Fiction in specific both as art and as insights into ourselves and our world."
For those who are into sci-fi, this is a great opportunity to read one of the classics and parallel to that, watch the lectures. The course runs for 10 weeks, and in each week, another author is featured in several video lectures.
Novels/authors discussed include: Caroll's "Adventures in Wonderland", Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", Hawthorne & Poe, Wells, Bradbury, Le Guin and Doctorow.
Here's more:
Fantasy & SciFi course info
The 2013 Sci-Fi Experience
And here an extra-link for sci-fi fans: all through 2013, readers of sci-fi books (or watcher of sci-fi films) are invited to share and discuss their current reads at the "
2013 Sci-Fi Expericence" which is hosted by Carl Anderson at his blog:
"And so I officially welcome you to The 2013 Science Fiction Experience, which runs from January 1st, 2013 through February 28th, 2013. The “rules” of the experience are simple: there are none. Remember, this isn’t a challenge. If you would like to join us in discussing any science fiction reading or television viewing or movie watching you do over the time period, please do."
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Starting Monday 28th: Introduction to Philosophy
On Monday, 28th January, the 7-week course "Introduction to Philosophy" will start: "This course will introduce you to some of the most important areas of research in contemporary philosophy. Each week a different philosopher will talk you through some of the most important questions and issues in their area of expertise." For more, visit the
philosophy course info page and watch the intro video.
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Starting February 4th: The Language of Hollywood: Storytelling, Sound, and Color
This Film History course explores how fundamental changes in film technology affected popular Hollywood storytelling. We will consider the transition to sound, and the introduction of color. .. Our aim is to illuminate popular cinema as the intersection of business, technology, and art. Through film history, we will learn about the craft of filmmaking and how tools shape art." -
course info
