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The Air in Literature

Module description

“How can we start to think about something we cannot see?”

This module responds to Davinia Quinlivan’s question by exploring literary representations of the air we breathe, inhabit, share, and pollute. Taking a transhistorical and interdisciplinary approach, you will study how authors from various periods depicted the air, and consider relevant historical and theoretical contexts - from classical theories of pneuma, to recent developments in clean energy technology. Whether they characterise air as natural matter or social construct, the literary works we will study will challenge any simple understanding of this element and its synonyms - breath, atmosphere, and wind.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims:

• to introduce you to literary texts which are concerned with the air and atmospheres we breathe and create
• to offer contextual approaches to analysing the relationship between body and air or space and air
• to enable you to build a theoretical knowledge and framework in which to investigate air in literature and to enable you to draw connections between different historical periods and texts
• to encourage and facilitate a research-led attitude to learning by offering you the opportunity to curate objects or posters for an exhibition display  

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate informed knowledge and understanding of selected early and contemporary texts and the ability to analyse these texts in detail in relation to their cultural contexts
• 2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of air, breath, atmosphere, and their importance in literature
• 3. Show a grasp of some key ideological contexts framing the representation of air in the periods studied, particularly in relation to medicine, religion, gender, nation, economy, and technology
• 4. Demonstrate a capacity to apply critical/theoretical terms and concepts to the study of literature

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate an advanced ability to read texts closely and to understand their place in their historical context
• 6. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of the value of databases in explorations of literature
• 7. Demonstrate an advanced ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Demonstrate the ability to work independently and to develop research skills, as well as work towards deadlines and manage your time effectively
• 9. Analyse and evaluate arguments and texts based on evidence
• 10. evelop an advanced capacity to think critically, i.e. confidently, rigorously, and independently, and an ability to construct complex arguments in writing
• 11. Demonstrate the ability to communicate fluently, effectively, and cogently

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Breath: The Air in the Body
• Flights of the Imagination
• The “Poetics” of Air Pollution
• The Politics of Breathing
• Wind Power and Weathering

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

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

• Charlotte Brontë, Wuthering Heights
• Teju Cole, ‘Seven Short Stories About Drones’
• Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus
• Luce Irigaray, The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger
• Salman Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh
• Selected poems by Victor Hernández Cruz, Imtiaz Darkher, John Denham, George Herbert, Muriel Rukeyser, Henry David Thoreau, etc.
• Tim Winton, Breath
• Anderson B (2009) Affective atmospheres. Emotion Space and Society, Elsevier, 2(2), 77–81.
• Connor S (2010) The Matter of Air: Science and Art of the Ethereal. Reaktion Books.
• Engelmann S (2015) Toward a poetics of air: Sequencing and surfacing breath. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.
• Jackson M and Fannin M (2011) Letting geography fall where it may—aerographies address the elemental. Environment and Planning-Part D.
• McCormack DP (2018) Atmospheric Things: On the Allure of Elemental Envelopment. Elements, Durham, NC.: Duke University Press.

Key words search

Air, breath, atmosphere, theory, literature, culture, environment, medical humanities, politics, renewable energy, drones, flight, pollution