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Apocalyptic Narratives: Disaster Writing

Module description

In this module, you will study a range of literary, historical and scientific narratives of global natural disasters (for example, hurricanes, landslides, drought, explosions, volcanic eruptions, exposure to nuclear warfare agents or chemical accidents), as well as texts on apocalypses. You will explore the ways in which such disasters and apocalypses have been imagined as the result of human actions—or portrayed as part of a ‘natural’ order. Further investigations include the ways in which multinational corporations often benefit by disasters, and the ways in which science writing and humanities writing can be integral to both the understanding and the mitigation of sometimes avoidable events. As part of the applied discipline of this module, you will be expected to engage in weekly writing practices of your own. 

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to guide you toward the understanding and critical analysis of narratives concerning natural disasters and apocalypses. These texts will include memoir, scientific narratives, prose fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, both in English and in translation. The texts of the syllabi are not meant to be exhaustive in scope, but will be used as models toward a broad knowledge of various components of the form. Through seminars, self-directed study, field observations and discussion, the module will develop your awareness and understanding of the way in which the general public, scholars and historians treat disasters, apocalypses, and to some extent, dystopias through written texts. You will also gain an enhanced appreciation of the processes involved in the generation of these texts more broadly, including a solid grasp of the social, political and economic frameworks that tend to generate the publication of these texts to begin with. One of the key questions you may reach will not be ‘What has been published?’ but ‘What has possibly been left out?’

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the elements of disaster narratives and their structures, with special attention on the depictions of nature, the environment and its various threats.
• 2. Demonstrate a capacity for independent study and self-directed inquiry and research, and to implement both imaginative and critical abilities through the completion of a portfolio of nature-based creative work and accompanying reflective commentary.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Demonstrate an appreciation of the formal techniques and imaginative expression within disaster narratives, the apocalypse—across memoir, history, fiction and creative nonfiction – and in particular, to apply these techniques in your own approaches.
• 4. Demonstrate an ability to produce pieces of writing in agreement with specified forms and genres taught on the module.
• 5. Present in seminars persuasive oral arguments concerning the various forms of writing by your peers and by published authors.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 6. Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of theoretical positions and articulate a broad range of appropriate critical and professional terminology; and through sustained independent work, demonstrate the ability to produce advanced forms of disaster narratives together with more broad-based writing skills.
• 7. Listen and respond to professional guidance and feedback from peers.

Syllabus plan

The writing project assignment will be the result of many forms of experimentation during the term based on group discussion, independent study, field observations, research toward the accumulation of relevant source materials and the testing of various narrative forms of your own. The syllabus plan could include the following key areas of reading and discussion:

• Theoretical backgrounds of disasters and the construction of the apocalypse
• Origin myths
• Natural versus human-made disasters
• Contemporary threats, global warming and climate change
• Ecology and deep ecology
• Utopia/Dystopia
• Memoir, oral history and personal narrative
• Disaster capitalism
• Urban environments and ‘heat islands’
• Responses, mediations, possible solutions

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 defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Core reading:

• Apokalypto (The Book of Revelation), King James Bible.
• Cave, Mark and Sloan, Stephen. Listening on the Edge: Oral History in the Aftermath of Crisis. Oxford: OUP, 2014.
• Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts:El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World. London: Verso Books, 2017.
• Loewenstein, Antony. Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing out of Catastrophe. London: Verso Books, 2017.
• McNeill, William H. Plagues and Peoples. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1997.
• Oliver-Smith, Anthony (Ed). The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective. London: Routledge, 2019.
• Rich, Sara. Shipwreck Hauntography: Underwater Ruins and the Uncanny. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021.
• Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. London: Penguin, 2017.
• Turner, Barry. Man-made Disaster. New York: Butterworth-Heinneman, 1997.
• Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. New York: Virgin, 2008.

Key words search

Narratives of disaster, catastrophe, apocalypse ecocriticism, nature writing, fiction, creative nonfiction