This project should explore and interrogate some of the themes, texts and theories we've discussed in class. You might want to discuss something we didn't cover in as much detail in class or you might want to compare and research texts we did not use. Remember that texts include both films and novels as well as short stories and essays. You create your final project and post as a page on your blog. I expect you to demonstrate a working knowledge of the theories, themes and ideas discussed in class. This is where you get to show off all your thoughts about a topic you choose and develop those ideas into a hyperlinked, well thought out text which you post on your blog.

You can take some of the blog posts that you've written about the films and/or texts and make them into a larger, final project. And I hope that you find them helpful as you begin to think about what you might do with your project.

Some possibilities: (This is not an exhaustive list and you are probably much more creative than I am so you can think of topics beyond the ones listed here.)

Explore one of the questions Mary Shelley raises in Frankenstein. What makes us human? You might look at one of the texts and/or films and explore how this theme is discussed, portrayed, etc. You'd make connections to the way technology is portrayed over and against the non-technologies. Why do you think these distinctions are important? Connect this to our insecurities, fears and involvement with technology today. There is a reason this genre flourishes.

You might discuss class issues in The Time Machine and compare and/or contrast these issues to another text or film. How do the texts explore class issues? What metaphors are employed? Is the machine vs. human just another exploration of the class system in America?

You could also do a gendered reading of any of the texts or films. Explore the ways masculinity and feminity are portrayed. Are the lines blurred between these roles in the films and/or texts? In what ways does the technology (cyborgs, machines, clones etc) complicate gender?

Explore the way memories are used as a trope or theme in one or more of the texts and/or films. Think of the memory implants in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Bladerunner and The Island, for example. How does the Time Traveler create a new kind of memory, both future and past? Memory is extremely powerful and we all think ours are unique and specific to us. How do some of these texts call this into question?

How do these texts use anti-heroes? Think of Deckard and Case, for example. Why anti-heroes? Explore the protagonists and characters who are anti-heroes.

Some of the novels we've read this semester such as Neuromancer, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Snow Crash are classified as cyberpunk. The genre is one where masculine and feminine roles are often reversed; sexuality is reinterpreted and all best are off. Discuss the genre and how one or more of the texts/films fit into or resist this classification.