Module: ENG6116-20 Writing and Environmental Crisis

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor:  Samantha Walton

Module Tutor Contact Details:  s.walton@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

In this module, you will consider the relationship between literature and environmental crisis – the huge bundle of subjects that can be grouped under that heading, including climate change, extinction, environmental justice, sustainability, pollution, agro-capitalism, and the desire to protect loved environments and disappearing ecosystems. How are writers responding to this crisis? Whose crisis is it, anyway? We will explore these questions, and many others, over the duration of the course. To help us, this module introduces the field of ‘ecocriticism’ – environmentally oriented literary criticism – and considers the use of the ‘Anthropocene’ as a new geological definition to mark humanity’s lasting impact on the earth. The historical shape of the course – from the late eighteenth to early twenty-first century – coincides with the rise of modern industry and technology, the solidification of capitalism as the world’s major economic, political, and social paradigm, and the race for empire. Taking this long historical view, we’ll consider the relationship between economy and ecology, colonisation and environmental degradation, and the politics of the ‘Anthropocene’, as a way of posing (and hopefully answering) the question: why does literature matter now?

2. Outline syllabus: 

Section 1: Romantic Crisis and the Anthropocene 

The first section of the module considers the response of the Romantics to environmental crisis. We will uncover how Romantic writers speak to key issues in the Anthropocene, addressing emergent ideas about the connections between human activity and earth systems, the role of literature in addressing environmental crisis, and the relationship between human and nonhuman agency.

Section 2: Victorian Ecologies: Literary History in the age of Anthropocene

This unit introduces you to historical research by looking at Victorian accounts of environmental crisis and the methodological challenges raised by such reading practices. Many key contemporary questions raised by the Anthropocene – such as the problematic necessity of thinking of the human as a species, deep time, technological advancement, capital accumulation, environmental pollution, and extinction – actually revisit debates first raised in the nineteenth century. What does the Anthropocene look like when viewed through a ‘Victorian’ frame?

Section 3: Modern and Contemporary Crisis

In the final section of the module, we look at modern fiction which grapples with environmental crisis and the social and ecological cost of capitalism and neo-colonialism, asking: how do these books represent the complexity and the interconnectedness of environmental crisis? Do they centre human or ecological struggles, and which modes of storytelling do they adopt to urge their readers to ‘stay with the trouble?’ to quote Donna Haraway. In seminars, we draw from critical race theory perspectives on the Anthropocene, eco-marxist thinking about capitalism in the web of life, and feminist critiques of the Anthropocene to ask, who is the ‘Man’ – the ‘anthropos’ – of this new geological marker, and how can literature help us imagine and practice more socially just forms of environmental activism? 

Finally, we’ll reflect on what students have learnt over the course of the model, asking how their ‘ecocritical’ perspectives have changed (or not!) in preparation for final assessment.

 3. Teaching and learning activities: 

A variety of teaching and learning activities will be used, including self-directed tasks, seminar discussion, lectures, in-class and independent engagement with online resources, and assessment tutorials.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Blog (2500 words)

• % Weighting: 40

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Essay: (3000 words)

• % Weighting: 60