The Hard-Sci SF Zoom Proudly Presents Dr. Ben Jens on “Creators and Consequences: Čapek and Soviet SF”
The Hard-Sci SF Zoom proudly presents Dr. Ben Jens
Saturday, November 7, at 9:00 a.m.
Title: “Creators and Consequences: Čapek and Soviet SF”
Description: What happens when the beings we are responsible for refuse to serve the purposes for which we made them? In the early 20th century, science fiction was a laboratory for examining the technological, political, and moral assumptions behind projects of human perfectibility. This lecture will place Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. and War with the Newts in conversation with key works of Soviet SF. While not always arguing for direct influence, we will explore how these SF works imagine the consequences of instrumentalizing living beings and the designing of the future from above. We will interrogate whether the real monster is the creature that escapes its makers or the social order that made creation necessary. Finally, we will examine these texts in their historical context while tracing their implications for our contemporary world.
Profile: Dr. Benjamin Jens received his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His main area of research is 19th-century Russian literature – especially the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky – with a focus on the relationship between literature, discourse, and Eastern Orthodoxy. He also has research interests in Eastern European cinema, science fiction, and cultural ties between the Western Balkans and Russia. Dr. Jens is also the director of the Arizona in Russia study abroad program in Moscow, Russia.
Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3MW8AMnSSjWWK5lzg27tXQ
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