Teaching Responsibility
LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:
Humanities and Social Science
Learning Methods
Lecture
Seminar
Tutorial
Module Offerings
4108ENGL-JAN-MTP
Aims
1. To introduce students to the field of environmental humanities, with reference to a range of disciplines, histories and intellectual figures;
2. To track the emergence of cultural environmentalism from the late-nineteenth century to the present day with reference to a range of literary, musical and filmic texts;
3.To develop critical techniques amenable and appropriate to the ecocritical analysis of the set texts, as well as applicable more generally;
4.To identify the links between the environmental imagination and more established discursive modes – in particular: gender, race and class;
5.To encourage students to develop a greater understanding of the connections between their own experience and the critical/cultural histories introduced on the module.
Learning Outcomes
1.
recognise the environmental imagination as a central concern within a range of cultural and critical practices since the late nineteenth century;
2.
articulate an understanding of the historical connections between modern environmental degradation and a range of social, political and cultural practices;
3.
deploy a range of analytical strategies as part of any critical engagement with different textual media;
4.
identify and appreciate the connections between their own experiences and practices, both within and outwith the university.
Module Content
Outline Syllabus:Outline Syllabus:
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1897)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
Daphne du Maurier, ‘The Birds’ (1952)
Ridley Scott (dir.), Blade Runner (1983)
Claire-Louise Bennett, Pond (2015)
Charlie Brooker, ‘Hated in the Nation’ (Black Mirror) (2016)
Module Overview:
This module will introduce you to a range of texts from the late nineteenth century to the present which express vital ideas and concerns relating to the changing relationship between humanity, the natural world, and technology, including genre fiction (fantasy, speculative fiction, crime fiction, and children's fiction) as well as film and music. It will introduce you to key concepts in contemporary literary studies such as ecocriticism.
This module will introduce you to a range of texts from the late nineteenth century to the present which express vital ideas and concerns relating to the changing relationship between humanity, the natural world, and technology, including genre fiction (fantasy, speculative fiction, crime fiction, and children's fiction) as well as film and music. It will introduce you to key concepts in contemporary literary studies such as ecocriticism.
Additional Information:Ecocriticism is one of the fastest growing critical practices of the modern era. Its roots lie in late-nineteenth-century cultural responses to the agrarian and industrial revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteen centuries – in particular, in the ways in which a range of writers imagined the influence that rapid, unchecked industrialisation (and the technology which facilitated that process) was having on traditional notions of English culture and English identity. This module introduces students to a range of texts from the late nineteenth century to the present which debate and express authors' concerns around the changing relationship between humans, the natural world and technology. Texts covered include examples of genre fiction – fantasy, speculative fiction, crime and children’s fiction - as well as film and music.