COLT 70.05 Environmental Imagination: Ecological Narratives for the Anthropocene
What can the Humanities teach us about our relationship with the environment? In this class, students will be introduced to the relatively new field of ecologically oriented literary and cultural studies. We will critically engage with various cultural constructions of environmental concepts and practices in a range of artworks exemplifying different discourses of nature (e.g. mythological, philosophical, scientific) and media (e.g. literature, cinema, land art, music, etc.). We will thus explore how an artwork can convey narratives of environmental resistance and ecological liberation as well as embody the historical continuity between human communities and specific territories. In addition, consideration will be given to the emergence of a number of distinct approaches within the Environmental Humanities, such as critical ecofeminism, biosemiotics, environmental justice, critical animal studies, new materialism, and posthumanism.
We will thus include in our class the rewarding practices of observation, hands-on experimentation, and skill-building perspectives, as well as try as much as possible to move beyond the classroom and embrace the world as an ideal learning space.
Instructor
Gilebbi