Spacebooks. An Introduction To Extraterrestrial Literature

MODULE I: CONSTRUCTING OTHER WORLDS
Learning objective: Literature is not a interstellar medium of a second order, but organizes outer space as we see it.
Main Source: Johannes Kepler, The dream, or a lunar astronomy (1609/1634)

Lesson 1: The Book And The Telescope - Kepler vs. Galilei
Lesson 2: The Demon And The Mind's Eye - Kepler's "Dream"

MODULE II: TRAVELLING THE EARLY MODERN COSMOS
Learning objective: The early-modern age reflects interstellar travelling as a journey made possible by literature and literary imagination.
Main Sources: Francis Godwin, The Man in the Moone (1629/1638)  / Cyrano de Bergerac, The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657)

Lesson 3: Godwin or The Secret Passage Of Fantasy
Lesson 4: Cyrano or The Universe As A Literary Market

MODULE III: THE 18TH CENTURY ALIEN
Learning objective: The idea of an inhabited solar system evokes a cosmical hierarchy of morals. 
Main Sources: Eberhard Christian Kindermann, The Speedy Journey (1744) / Immanuel Kant, Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven (1755), Part Three, paragraphs 1-12 / Emanuel Swedenborg, Earths In The Universe (1758), Passages 27-29.

Lesson 5: The Golden Chain Of The Cosmos - Kindermann's Trip To The Martian Moon
Lesson 6: Kant, Swedenborg, And The Nature Of The Alien Reader

MODULE IV: READING MARS
Learning objective: The Age of the Martians is linked to the galactic expansion of evolutionary theory.
Main Sources: Kurd Lasswitz, Two Planets (1897) / H.G. Wells, The Crystal Egg (1897) 

Lesson 7: The Canals or The Rise (And Fall) Of Martian Utopia
Lesson 8: Colonizing Earth, Colonizing Mars

MODULE V: CULTURE INDUSTRY AND THE 20th CENTURY ALIEN 
Learning objective: The organization of Space Fiction in magazines shapes the perception of the genre - and the perception of its consumers as well, including sexual stereotypes. While the superficial notion of space fiction registers a vivid tradition of sexist clichés, outer space is in fact a fertile ground for diversive concepts of sexual identity.
Main Sources: Pulp / Donna Haraway, Monkeys, Aliens, and Women: Love, Science, and Politics at the Intersection of Feminist Theory and Colonial Discourse(1989)

Lesson 9: The Cosmos Of Pulp
Lesson 10: The Gender Of Space

MODULE VI: EMPIRE - OUTER SPACE AS A POLITICAL BATTLEGROUND
Learning objective: As outer space becomes an arena of political conflicts, wars become an integral element of space fiction. However: The emergence of the Galactic Empire shows us that space politics have less to do with enemies and warfare than with control and communication.
Main Sources: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959) / Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)

Lesson 11: Empire As A Drug - Frank Herbert's Dune
Lesson 12: Empire As A Suit - Robert A. Heinlein's Starship troopers

MODULE VII: EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIBRARIES
Learning objective: Organizing cosmic knowledge is not longer a bureaucratic task, but a story in itself, a turning point in literary consciousness.
Main Sources: Ludovico Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516), Canto 34 / Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1942-1950) / Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978-1980)

Lesson 13: The Dump
Lesson 14: The Archive

MODULE VIII: POST-TERRESTRIAL LITERATURE
Learning objective: Despite being confronted with »true« interstellar media, literature finds its place in an earthless universe.
Main Source: Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) / Carl Sagan, Contact (1985) / Reinhard Jirgl, Nichts von Euch auf Erden/Deserted Earth (2013) / Christopher Nolan, Interstellar (2014)

Lesson 15: Books Vs. Signals or The End Of Human Totalitarianism
Lesson 16: Man Beyond Earth, Books Beyond Man

• Philipp Theisohn - German Department
• Krystina Schaub - Philosophy/ German Language Studies
• Julia Nauer - Literature / Philosophy