Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World: Conclusion

So ten weeks ago I took an online certification course on Coursera on Fantasy and Science Fiction, linked here. It has been an instructional ten weeks, and finally I have completed it successfully. Read below for more details.

The Course

The Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World is an attempt by Prof. Eric Rabkin of University of Michigan to trace the history of the fantasy and science fiction genres to help us understand how we have reached here. The course was divided into ten modules of a week each. We had to read one or more books by single/multiple authors each week, at the end of which he shares videos where he analyses these books with us through video lectures.

The ten week schedule then, would be as follows (Click on the links to see my analysis module-wise):

1. Grimm — Children's and Household Tales (Lucy Crane translation with Walter Crane illustrations)
2. Carroll — Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
3. Stoker — Dracula
4. Shelley — Frankenstein
5. Hawthorne & Poe — Stories and Poems (Hawthorne's works: "The Birthmark," "Rappaccini's Daughter," "The Artist of the Beautiful," and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"; Edgar Allan Poe texts: "The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Oval Portrait,” “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” “The Bells,” “The Raven,” and “Annabel Lee.”)
6. Wells — The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The Country of the Blind, The Star
7. Burroughs & Gilman — A Princess of Mars & Herland
8. Bradbury — The Martian Chronicles
9. LeGuin — The Left Hand of Darkness
10. Doctorow — Little Brother

Of these, only Bradbury's Martian Chronicles and LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness was not available for free online legally.

Now, after reading the books, we were asked to then come up with a 270-320 word thesis on the text, something new that we discovered on reading that would enrich the average reader of the tale. Now yes, a 270-320 word thesis may seem very short, but Professor Rabkin's point was that if you can't even string 270 words, then you haven't read the text well, and if you take more that 320 to make your point, then you haven't understood the text enough to be concise. Only after the submission of the thesis could we view the lectures, the professor's views about the books. These theses were peer evaluated, with feedback loops to help us improve our work.

You can find all my analyses of the books, stories and poems I read here.

If you want to read my final thesis for each of the modules, click here.

Given that I successfully managed to meet the submission deadline in only 8 out of the 10 modules, and in one I did not finish the peer evaluation segment - that's 7 full submissions out of 10, I think I can be VERY proud for having an overall score of 75%. My statement of accomplishment I give you here. So proud. So fucking proud, if you would pardon my French.