Module: EN7007-30 Environmental Writing and Eco-criticism

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

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1.Brief description and aims of module

‘Environmental Writing and Ecocriticism’ will provide a structured advanced introduction to the key concerns and debates within ecocriticism and environmental writing. This module will comprise two thematic strands, covering some of the crucial issues at the forefront of the field, including the neohumanist revisionism of Jonathan Bate and Lawrence Buell, the Great Wilderness Debate, ecofeminism, queer ecology and new interventions in Darwinism and postcolonial studies. Broadly speaking, the field has seen a shift from a ‘nature-endorsing’ to a ‘nature-skeptical’ orientation, culminating in Timothy Morton’s call for ‘ecology without nature’.

Students will be encouraged to think across and make connections with the two strands: the assessment is explicitly designed to facilitate such cross-comparisons.

Thematic strands will be selected from this indicative list: ‘Place and Ecology’; ‘20thC. American nature writing’; ‘Postwar British nature writing’; ‘Representations of Canadian wilderness’; ‘Colonial / postcolonial natures’; ‘Contemporary environmental fictions’; ‘Globalising environments’; ‘The environmental tradition in English literature’.

2.Outline syllabus

3.Teaching and learning activities

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: 5000 Word Essay
• % Weighting: 100%