Module: ENG6103-20 Writing and the Environmental Crisis

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Sam 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, biodiversity loss, environmental justice, sustainability, pollution and associated threats to health, and the desire to protect loved landscapes. How are writers responding to this crisis? The module introduces ‘ecocriticism’—literary criticism developed from an environmentalist viewpoint. You will examine the priorities that ecocritics use in assessing literary texts, and compare ecocritical criteria to other literary-critical criteria.

2. Outline syllabus:

The texts will be taken one by one, in published order, throughout the teaching period. In the run-up to each assessment item, its aims and techniques will be discussed in class.

Texts will be grouped under themes of:

• What is Nature?

• Pollution

• Water Crisis

• Food Cultures

• Climate Chaos

3. Teaching and learning activities:

Lectures, seminar discussion, small group discussion, tutorials, screenings of documentaries and films and field trips.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Blog (2,000 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 40

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Essay of 3,000 words

• % Weighting: 60