Studies in World Literature (301-0-30)
Topic
Culture in a Changing Climate
Instructors
Corey Byrnes
847/467-3314
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Office 4-548
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Culture in a Changing Climate
This course is designed around creative responses to climate change and other environmental crises in recent literary, cinematic, and artistic works from different sites around the world. We will pay close attention to how familiar aesthetic forms and the critical methods used to understand them are (or are not) changing in the face of overlapping existential environmental crises. Are there specific genres or media best suited to addressing climate change and helping to inspire political action? What are the effects of identifying or writing within a "new" literary genre such as "climate fiction"? Can we speak of similar modes in other media: is there such a thing as "climate cinema" or "climate art"? And if there is, how do these categories shape both the art that gets made and how we understand it?
Teaching Method
Discussion
Evaluation Method
Evaluation Method (Tentative)
Participation and Preparation (15%)
Short Essays: 30%
Final Essay Proposal: 10%
Final Essay: 45%
Class Materials (Required)
Required books:
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (ISBN: 1538732181)
Wu Ming-yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes (ISBN 0345802888)
Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey (0593538242)
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area