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REASON IS KING AND SCIENCE IS HIS CROWN: A STUDY OF FRENCH SCIENCE-FICTION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT
Title
REASON IS KING AND SCIENCE IS HIS CROWN: A STUDY OF FRENCH SCIENCE-FICTION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT.
Creator
Gandy, Lauren A, Trinquet du Lys, Charlotte, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The thesis seeks to explore the didactic application of French science-fiction during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the portrayal and dissemination of their respective philosophical theories. Studying science-fiction novels during these centuries will allow a comparison of seventeenth and eighteenth-century dissemination methods, to determine if the foundational seventeenth-century methods were retained or modified to more accurately represent the change in philosophical...
Show moreThe thesis seeks to explore the didactic application of French science-fiction during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the portrayal and dissemination of their respective philosophical theories. Studying science-fiction novels during these centuries will allow a comparison of seventeenth and eighteenth-century dissemination methods, to determine if the foundational seventeenth-century methods were retained or modified to more accurately represent the change in philosophical attitudes. Exploration of this topic will contribute to a greater understanding of French Enlightenment theory, analysis of relatively unstudied novels in the science-fiction genre, and a novel approach to "proto" science-fiction literature by connecting the previously separate genres of science-fiction and philosophy during the Enlightenment. The trends within the seventeenth century show dominant authoritative representations through analogical examples, authoritative ideological figures, and an emphasis on logically sustained arguments. The eighteenth-century trends focus on logical passionate attitudes, burlesque scenarios, and authoritative actions to exemplify the Enlightenment ideologies. Therefore, these five analyzed �uvres show conservation of didactic and authoritative dissemination methods during this philosophically evolutionary time period.
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Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFH2000125, ucf:46054
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000125
A SURVEY OF PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN REGARDS TO THEIR ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND ITS USE IN THE CLASSROOM
Title
A SURVEY OF PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN REGARDS TO THEIR ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND ITS USE IN THE CLASSROOM.
Creator
Kosky, Amy, Hoffman, Elizabeth, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
In 1957 at the University of Chicago, Robert Heinlein asserted that through science fiction humanity can wonder upon important questions without causing harm to the real world. "Through such speculative experiments science fiction can warn against dangerous solutions, urge toward better solutions. Science fiction joyously tackles the real and pressing problems of our race, wrestles with them, never ignores them—problems which other forms of fiction cannot challenge. For this reason I assert...
Show moreIn 1957 at the University of Chicago, Robert Heinlein asserted that through science fiction humanity can wonder upon important questions without causing harm to the real world. "Through such speculative experiments science fiction can warn against dangerous solutions, urge toward better solutions. Science fiction joyously tackles the real and pressing problems of our race, wrestles with them, never ignores them—problems which other forms of fiction cannot challenge. For this reason I assert that science fiction is the most realistic, the most serious, the most significant, the most sane and healthy and human fiction being published today" (Davenport, 1959). Preservice teachers enrolled in the education program at a large metropolitan university were surveyed to determine if they had preconceived notions about science fiction, if they would use science fiction within their classrooms and if science fiction would be available to the students in their classrooms. Also explored was if these future educators believed science fiction was too complex for English language learners and students with exceptionalities. Analysis of this survey revealed that although most preservice teachers believe science fiction literature has value within the classroom and they planned to use it at least part of the time, about one in five believed the concepts and themes were too complex for English language learners and students with exceptionalities. The researcher of this study hopes the information contained in this study can help educators encourage students to read science fiction as well as provide the educators with a resource of science fiction literature book titles which are grade level and ability level appropriate for their students.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFH0004633, ucf:45313
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004633
The Prologue Past
Title
The Prologue Past.
Creator
McKee, Raymond, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Rushin, Pat, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The Prologue Past is a collection of four essays and one novella which explore the past in different fashions. Memory, and the ability to reflect and find meaning in our experiences, is an important cornerstone of engaging the past. Memories are a true anomaly of how our inner-consciousness operates. With each day, the past facilitates a special part of our memory bank which we seldom have any control of. While the abilities of people to recall times, events, places, and experiences differ...
Show moreThe Prologue Past is a collection of four essays and one novella which explore the past in different fashions. Memory, and the ability to reflect and find meaning in our experiences, is an important cornerstone of engaging the past. Memories are a true anomaly of how our inner-consciousness operates. With each day, the past facilitates a special part of our memory bank which we seldom have any control of. While the abilities of people to recall times, events, places, and experiences differ largely in capacity, we all undoubtedly share universal traits in the manner in which we hold onto our memories. I'm personally fascinated by the notion of unreliable memory or the inability to recall a past event in a concrete moment in time. I'm equally intrigued by what's tied to our most vivid recollections of the past, involving adrenaline and emotion. My exploration of memory(-)and how it's ascertained and utilized(-)is based on certain moments in my life presented in these personal stories, which range from childhood endeavors to adult conquests, seemingly linked together through particular themes of fear, loss, and hope.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFE0005530, ucf:50306
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005530
Enterface : a novella
Title
Enterface : a novella.
Creator
McLeod, Hubert Calip, Rushin, Pat, Arts and Sciences
Abstract / Description
University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; A computer screen places each of us in an interface and virtual reality provides a totally simulated environment, a virtual world that we can enter. Enterface is a novella that examines the question first posed by Michael Heim: How far can we enter cyberspace and still remain human? It also explores the power and the limitation of language and the role of stories to shape reality in human life. Its themes are death, technology...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; A computer screen places each of us in an interface and virtual reality provides a totally simulated environment, a virtual world that we can enter. Enterface is a novella that examines the question first posed by Michael Heim: How far can we enter cyberspace and still remain human? It also explores the power and the limitation of language and the role of stories to shape reality in human life. Its themes are death, technology, ethics, and love. It is informed by Wittgensteinian philosophy, Norse mythology, and the "metaphysics of virtual reality." The plot involves Moses Mackinow, a former Air Force officer and entrepreneur, who decides there should be a way to simply live forever. He hits upon the idea that life could be digitized, and a civilization, a world of complete, sentient humans could be created in cyberspace--a world he could enter upon his death and continue to live. A variety of technologies are available to digitize the physical human (x-rays, CTSCNS, Magnetic Resonance Images, graphic images, etc.), but the big problem is how to synthesize his human heart. Moses decides that the stories of his life are the keys to creating the "rag and bone shop" of his eternal heart. Getting the stories "right" is critical to the prospect of digitizing life and is a major focus of the novella action. The novella traces the reduction of Moses as a a human being as he pursues his obsession, compromising one principle after another. Everything in the environment of the novella, reflects this reduction. Everything becomes less than it was, a glimpse of humanity reduced to bits and bytes, floating 1's and 0's. Enterface is a work at war with itself.
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Date Issued
1999
Identifier
CFR0011964, ucf:53091
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011964
Communism's Futures: Intelligentsia Imaginations in the Writings of the Strugatsky Brothers
Title
Communism's Futures: Intelligentsia Imaginations in the Writings of the Strugatsky Brothers.
Creator
Tammaro, Elizabeth, Solonari, Vladimir, Gannon, Barbara, French, Scot, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were the most popular science fiction writing duo in Soviet Russia from the 1960s through the 1980s. Examining their imaginative fictional worlds against the background of wider changes in the Soviet Union allows scholars to gain insights in the world of the Soviet intelligentsia, the educated bearers of culture. As members of this group, the Strugatskys expressed the hopes, frustrations and fears, of their peers, vindicating their intellectual and emotional life....
Show moreArkady and Boris Strugatsky were the most popular science fiction writing duo in Soviet Russia from the 1960s through the 1980s. Examining their imaginative fictional worlds against the background of wider changes in the Soviet Union allows scholars to gain insights in the world of the Soviet intelligentsia, the educated bearers of culture. As members of this group, the Strugatskys expressed the hopes, frustrations and fears, of their peers, vindicating their intellectual and emotional life. I support the argument that the Brothers occupied a middle ground between conformity and dissident, dubbed the (")lost(") intelligentsia by Lloyd Churchward. I demonstrate this state of being in Soviet society by providing context to popular Strugatsky works, and discussing the evolution of their perspective over time, as displayed in their literature. Featured prominently in Strugatsky works are themes of governmental authority and scientific development, therefore these are the key focuses of this research. The Strugatskys examination of the essential question of the meaning and attainment of happiness adds a new layer of insight to this argument. Studying the Strugatsky Brothers aligns with the greater trend in the field of cultural studies of the Soviet Union, as historians seek to gain greater understanding of how society experienced the communist government. The captivating writing of the Strugatskys, a mixture of foreboding, irony and humor, contributes to the narrative of Soviet history as the authors were culturally significant figures whose legacy remains influential today.
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Date Issued
2017
Identifier
CFE0006919, ucf:51693
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006919
THE AMBIVALENCE OF SCIENCE FICTION: SCIENCE FICTION, NEO-IMPERIALISM, AND THE IDEOLOGY OF MODERNITY AS PROGRESS
Title
THE AMBIVALENCE OF SCIENCE FICTION: SCIENCE FICTION, NEO-IMPERIALISM, AND THE IDEOLOGY OF MODERNITY AS PROGRESS.
Creator
Hall, Graham, Campbell, James, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This thesis sets out to examine the relationship between science fiction and its conditions of production, specifically interrogating the genre's articulations of the ideology of modernity as progress. Sf has been characterized variously as a characteristically useful critical engagement with the ideologies of its context and as wholly ideological at the level of form, relying on the authority of a scientific episteme in its "cognitive estrangements," while not obligated to operate within the...
Show moreThis thesis sets out to examine the relationship between science fiction and its conditions of production, specifically interrogating the genre's articulations of the ideology of modernity as progress. Sf has been characterized variously as a characteristically useful critical engagement with the ideologies of its context and as wholly ideological at the level of form, relying on the authority of a scientific episteme in its "cognitive estrangements," while not obligated to operate within the boundaries of this episteme. As such, the genre is unparalleled in its capacity to articulate ideologies under the guise of a putatively neutral science and reason. However, this same formal action places the genre in the unique position of being able to utilize the authority of a scientific episteme to re-evaluate the putative neutrality of that very scientific episteme. As a result, this study concludes that while the genre's reliance on the external authority of science in "cognitively" organizing its estrangements may make it particularly conducive to articulating ideological technoscience and the ideology of modernity as progress, the genre is characteristically ambivalent in this respect, both at the level of form and as a result of the incongruities between form and narrative. To support my thesis I engage a number of science fictional texts, focusing on Golden Age sf of the mid-20th century, while also branching out into explorations of a variety of 20th and 21st century sf texts, including texts from the pulp era, New Wave, cyberpunk, and post-singularity sf. I analyze within the effects of the conceptual mapping of society in terms of the natural sciences in sf, as well as the ambivalent presence of the robot as a megatextual motif, exploring the relationship of these to the ideology of modernity as progress and the post-scarcity fantasy of global mass consumption prosperity.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFH0004471, ucf:45121
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004471
BAD PIXELS: CHALLENGES OF MICROBUDGET DIGITAL CINEMA
Title
BAD PIXELS: CHALLENGES OF MICROBUDGET DIGITAL CINEMA.
Creator
Bowser, Alexander, Stoeckl, Ula, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Bad Pixels is a feature-length, microbudget, digital motion picture, produced, written, and directed by Alexander Jon Bowser as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The materials contained herein serve as a record of the microbudget filmmaking experience. This thesis documents the challenges confronted by a first-time feature filmmaker; an evaluation of both the theory and application of a dynamic...
Show moreBad Pixels is a feature-length, microbudget, digital motion picture, produced, written, and directed by Alexander Jon Bowser as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The materials contained herein serve as a record of the microbudget filmmaking experience. This thesis documents the challenges confronted by a first-time feature filmmaker; an evaluation of both the theory and application of a dynamic microbudget approach to digital content creation. From script development to digital distribution, the thesis aims to reflect on technical and procedural decisions made and assess their impact on the overall experience and final product.
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Date Issued
2011
Identifier
CFE0003729, ucf:48767
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003729