This module will not be running in 2010/2011

NOTE FOR 2009-2010: THE SYLLABUS WILL BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM THAT GIVEN HERE, WHICH IS FOR 2008-2009. BECAUSE OF RESEARCH LEAVE, THE FIRST TERM WILL MOSTLY BE TAUGHT BY JONATHAN BATE, THE SECOND BY PABLO MUKHERJEE AND NICK LAWRENCE. THE FIRST FEW WEEKS OF THE FIRST TERM WILL FOCUS ON POEMS IN THE BLOODAXE ANTHOLOGY *EARTHSHATTERING: ECOPOEMS*, ED. NEIL ASTLEY. THIS IS THE BOOK TO BEGIN BY BUYING. MORE DETAILS SOON.

Module Aims: To introduce students to one of the newest, most vibrant and (in worldly terms) most relevant methods of reading literary texts, whereby literary and cultural production is examined in relation to environmental impact, ecological models and the social, political, ontological and epistemological implications of the categories of ‘human’ and ‘nature’. Strong combination of close reading, cultural and historical context, cross-national comparative study, together with a wide range of texts and theoretical approaches.

The syllabus will be divided into four sections, co-taught by three colleagues:

I. Term 1, weeks 1-5: An introduction to environmental theory, followed by Romantic Ecology, consisting of 3 sessions on British Romantic traditions.

II. Term 1, weeks 7-10 (after reading week): North American Ecopoetics, on texts ranging from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

III. Term 2, weeks 1-5: A second session on environmental theory, followed by a range of contemporary ecologically-minded literary texts and a morning outdoors.

IV. Term 2, weeks 7-10 (after reading week): A range of postmodern and post-theoretical explorations.

Primary texts, apart from handouts, include:

Hudson, Green Mansions (Dover)
Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (Dover Thrift)
Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (Oxford)
Roy, The God of Small Things (Flamingo)
Griffiths, Wild (Penguin)
DeLillo, White Noise (Picador)
Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (Penguin)
Solnit, Wanderlust (Verso)

Critical reading useful for the module may include, inter alia:

Arnold and Guha, eds., Nature, Culture and Imperialism
Bate, The Song of the Earth
Buell, The Environmental Imagination and Writing in an Endangered World
Coupe, ed., The Green Studies Reader
Davis, City of Quartz
Garrard, Ecocriticism
Glofelty, ed., The Ecocriticism Reader
Grove, Green Imperialism
Ross, The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life
Williams, The Country and the City
Zimmerman, Contesting Earth’s Future: Radical Ecology and Postmodernity

The module will be conducted in weekly seminars lasting an hour and a half. Assessment is by two 5,000-word essays.