Literature and the Environment
| Module title | Literature and the Environment |
|---|---|
| Module code | HUC2004 |
| Academic year | 2020/1 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Chloe Preedy (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 5 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 30 |
|---|
Module description
At a time when we are increasingly confronted with the reality of climate change, the environmental humanities can help us to explore and evaluate the ideas, experiences, and cultural tropes that have historically shaped our relationship with the world around us. This module investigates that relationship with reference to texts from a range of historical periods, literary genres, and cultural traditions. By examining how concepts such as ‘nature’, ‘ecology’, and ‘environment’ have been conceived and renegotiated across different times and cultures, this module aims to evaluate the role and significance of the humanities in responding to present-day environmental crisis.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module will introduce you to literary and historical texts that represent a range of environments and environmental issues alongside theoretical material about ecological humanities, cultural environmentalism, and environmental politics. Lectures will draw on the research of individual lecturers, offering readings of the primary and secondary materials which you will then consider in seminars; the seminars will deepen your understanding and enable you to begin to develop your own responses through group discussion. In addition, you will independently explore and research your own ideas for written assignments, on which you will receive feedback commenting on the intellectual content of your work, the understanding of key concepts shown, and the mechanics of argument, grammar and style.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Explain the role literary and/or historical texts play in how we understand environmental issues
- 2. Evaluate how literary and cultural practices are implicated in, respond to, and can affect environmental issues
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Analyse a variety of texts and relate their concerns and modes of expression to environmental appropriate contexts
- 4. Interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Develop, organise, and express ideas effectively in written form to set deadlines and/or in a time-limited setting
- 6. Demonstrate effective research and bibliographic skills and the capacity to work independently on set tasks
- 7. Demonstrate communication skills, the capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and the capacity to write clear and correct prose
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that the module will cover some or all of the following topics:
- The Politics of “Nature”: Evaluating Ecocriticism
- Ecologies of Place: Landscapes and Lived Experience
- Urban Environments: The City
- Friend or Food? Animal Interactions and/or Rehabilitation
- Natural Resources: Managing Consumption and Waste
- Petrocultures: Popular Fiction and Fossil Capital
- Environmental Disaster: Pollution and Climate Change
- Indigeneity, Race and Nature
More information is available via the ELE and College intranet.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | 131 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 5 | Lectures large group teaching (5 x 1 hour) |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 10 | Seminar small group teaching allowing for in-depth discussion (5 x 2 hours) |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 4 | Workshop small group teaching (4 x 1 hour) |
| Guided Independent Study | 131 | Reading, researching, writing, seminar preparation, ELE- and web-based activity, attending office hours with tutor, etc. |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading journal | 1000 words | 1-6 | Written with opportunity for oral feedback in booked office hour |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 90 | 0 | 10 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 70 | 1500 words | 1-7 | Written |
| Blog post | 20 | 500 words | 1-6 | Written |
| Engagement | 10 | Continuous | 1-4 | Oral feedback with opportunity for office hours follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay | 1-7 | Referral/deferral period |
| Blog post | Blog post | 1-6 | Referral/deferral period |
| Engagement | Repeat study or mitigation | 1-4 | N/a |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Sample secondary reading:
- Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Jill Didur, and Anthony Carrigan (eds), Global Ecologies and the Environmental Humanities: Postcolonial Approaches (2016)
- Alexander Elliot, Vinita Damodaran, and James Cullis (eds), Climate Change and the Humanities: Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary Environmental Crisis (2017)
- Greta Gaard, Simon C. Estok, and Serpil Oppermann (eds), International Perspectives in Feminist Ecocriticism (2013)
- Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016)
- Ursula K. Heise, Jon Christensen, and Michelle Niemann, eds, The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities (2017)
- Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate (2014)
- Carolyn Merchant, Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture (2013)
- George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life (2014)
- Timothy Morton, Being Ecological (2018)
- Timothy Morton, Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (2007)
- Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 23/03/2017 |
| Last revision date | 29/06/2020 |
