| Unit name | Writing the Anthropocene 1945-Present |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL30124 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Daw |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit aims to introduce third year students to the study of literature and environment. It will provide an in-depth introduction to ecocriticism as a theoretical tool, and to the Anthropocene as an emerging area of study within English Studies. This is a particularly prescient aim, given the consistent use of the term Anthropocene in media and public discourse in recent years. This unit will allow students to critically examine and reflect on contemporary discussions and depictions of the Anthropocene, and to contextualise these discussions within a comprehensive overview of Transatlantic and Commonwealth environmental and nature writing, both fiction and non-fiction, written between 1945 and the present. Students will also develop a comprehensive understanding of the evolving theoretical field of ecocriticism, including a good grasp of the field’s current and past debates. This will substantially increase their confidence and competence in using ecocriticism as a theoretical and analytical tool. The unit will prepare students very well for dissertations in the field of Literature and Environment, for future study in the field of the Environmental Humanities at MA Level, and for careers outside of academia, in which anthropogenic Climate Change and ‘the Anthropocene’ are increasingly on the agenda.
Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
(1)analyse and understand the evolution of twentieth and twenty-first century British, American and Commonwealth nature writing (fiction, non-fiction and poetry), and of ecocriticism as a theoretical field and analytical tool
(2)Reflect critically on changing literary and non-literary depictions of “Nature”, and of the Human, within the context of the Anthropocene
(3)demonstrate an expansive understanding of the theorisation of “Nature” in critical theory and the analysis of literary representations of “Nature”
(4) apply skills in the researching, reading and presentation of complex material appropriate to level H.
1 x 2hr seminar weekly
1 x 2000-word essay (40%)[ILOs 1-4]
1 x 3000-word essay (60%)[ILOs 1-4]
•Timothy Clark, Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept (2015)
•Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962)
•J. A. Baker, The Peregrine (1967)
•Frank Herbert, Greenslaves (1966)
•Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior (2012)
•Helen MacDonald, H is for Hawk (2014)
