CLASSIC 60Fantastic Journey: Antiquity and Beyond
Classics · 5 units · Undergraduate lower division (0-99)
Investigation of phenomenon of fantastic or imaginary journey, from Homer’s Odyssey to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey . Examination of ways in which travel to strange or new worlds is presented through number of texts (and occasionally films) across different cultures and periods, with focus primarily on antiquity but also looking at how important motifs from ancient Greek and Roman travel narratives have endured to present day. Issues include cultural relativism, what makes space either familiar or alien, rebuilding of home in fantastic territories, methods of travel (both fantastic and mundane), methods of measuring time and distance across space, modern classifications of fantasy and science fiction, and to what extent these terms are applicable to ancient world.
P/NP or letter grading.
When it runs
Not on the schedule for any of Fall 2025 through Spring 2027. UCLA publishes only that window, so this does not mean the course is gone — check the official listing.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.