CLS2820

Introduction to ecocriticism

Kate Rigby

8 points - 3 hours per week - First semester - Clayton

Objectives On completion of this subject students should have developed an understanding of the main elements of ecological thinking, and the implications of an ecological perspective for the study of literature, culture and society; an enhanced ability to recognise and critique cultural assumptions about nature, humanity and the divine in a variety of texts and contexts; and a greater awareness of the implications of their own personal and cultural views of nature for their self-understanding, relations with others, and mode of being in the world.

Synopsis This subject provides an introduction to the new field of ecologically oriented literary and cultural studies. Ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between the texts of human culture and the physical world of nature, both 'outer' (the earth and its ecosystems) and 'inner' (the body and its drives). In this subject we will begin by looking critically at the ways in which nature has been constructed in certain key texts of Western religion, philosophy, science and economics, notably as a limit to be transcended, a domain to be dominated, or property to be owned. In this connection we will then examine Goethe's literary engagement with such attitudes towards nature in his drama Faust. Part Two. Secondly, we will address those interconnections between the project of the mastery of nature and the dynamics of social domination that have been disclosed by certain Marxist and ecofeminist theorists, and explored in literary form in Christa Wolf's Chernobyl novel, Accident. A day's news. Finally, we will look at a number of theoretical proposals for the post-modern ecological reconstruction of our understanding of ethics, the self, the sacred, and our relationship to place, and consider how this process of reconstruction has been approached in a variety of texts, including Silko's novel Ceremony, the film Dances With Wolves and a selection of poetry.

Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words) 25% - Essay (2500 words) 40% - Examination (2 hours) 30% - Participation: 5%

Prescribed texts

Goethe W Faust. Part Two OUP
Silko L M Ceremony Penguin
Wolf C Accident. A Day's News Virago
Dances With Wolves (on video)
In addition, a collection of critical essays and poems will be made available to students in the first week week of semester.

Recommended texts

Capra F The web of life: A new synthesis of mind and matter Harper Collins
Glotfelty C and Fromm H (eds) The ecocriticism reader. Landmarks in literary ecology Georgia U P
Jagtenberg T and McKie D Eco-impacts and the greening of postmodernity: New maps for communication studies, cultural studies and sociology Sage
Kerridge R and others Writing the environment. Ecocriticism and literature Zed Books
Merchant C (ed.) Ecology Humanities Press
Worster D Nature's economy. A history of ecological ideas CUP

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