Speculative Fiction and Academia

[jamesbondsmith He/him]

Which elements of speculative fiction (fantasy, scifi, horror etc) do you think would warrant academic study?

I've been vaguely considering going back to university for a Masters or PHD course, but I really would need something that could hold my interest for 1-3 years.

My honours thesis was focusing on the Hunger Games series, and I looked at Baudrillard's precession of simulacra and how various characters fitted into it while also looking at if audiences had actually paid attention to the critical media literacy messages (I got kind of marked down for being too broad and splitting my efforts between the two). I thought about focusing on the latter more closely, but it's really hard to make judgements on whether people 'miss the point' post Death of the Author.

I also thought of looking at healing and injury-induced disability in high-magic fantasy (I had a bad experience with a certain series), or perhaps something to do with ludonarrative dissonance (when the messages from a game's story and its gameplay are on conflict).

[Frustration]

Well, if you're looking at a meta focus, being how the audience interacts with the text. It might be worth looking into the therapeutic benefits of reading fiction.