Worldbuilding and Worldmaking
Worldbuilding and Worldmaking In this seminar we will survey and critically examine fictional worlds in literature, cinema, and games as well the invention of places, cultures, and shared beliefs in the real world. Worldbuilding synthesizes concepts and stretches our understanding of possible realities through fantastic settings such as Middle-Earth, the Star Wars universe, or Barbie-land. Worldmaking does the same thing in our lived world through the invention of origin-stories, shared symbols and myths, invented traditions, and imagined geographies. Among the questions we will consider are: How do we conceive of coherent places and times? What real world consequences do fictional worlds have on popular beliefs and practices? Students will design their own well-researched and richly detailed worlds during the semester.
Worldbuilding and Worldmaking In this seminar we will survey and critically examine fictional worlds in literature, cinema, and games as well the invention of places, cultures, and shared beliefs in the real world. Worldbuilding synthesizes concepts and stretches our understanding of possible realities through fantastic settings such as Middle-Earth, the Star Wars universe, or Barbie-land. Worldmaking does the same thing in our lived world through the invention of origin-stories, shared symbols and myths, invented traditions, and imagined geographies. Among the questions we will consider are: …Read more
This course was very easy for 90% of the term. We had approximately four homework assignments for the first nine weeks, none of which were graded. The last 10% came when the world project crept up, and suddenly, about 15-20 pages of writing were due. I will admit there was a fair amount of heads up on the assignment, but with little to no partial deadlines, I can say with certainty I was far from the only person who had to cram out over 10 pages of writing in the final weekend. All this being said, I think if you know to work ahead in this class, it can be an amazing first-year seminar through and through. Besides the series of papers you write throughout the term (all of which are fully creative writing, so it's easy), don't expect to spend more than an hour on work for this class a week.
This course was very easy for 90% of the term. We had approximately four homework assignments for the first nine weeks, none of which were graded. The last 10% came when the world project crept up, and suddenly, about 15-20 pages of writing were due. I will admit there was a fair amount of heads up on the assignment, but with little …Read more
This class is really well structured and Professor Lint Sagarena was easily the best Professor I’ve had at Middlebury so far. He is extremely accommodating and the class material is enjoyable to learn about and not hard to complete. He is also a very fair grader.
I loved this class!!! Roberto is very hands off and we barely got any work. The only issue would be that because of how hands off he was, pacing was really difficult for our one big assignment. We also spent a lot of class talking about life and not class.