Studies in Literary Theory & Criticism (481-0-20)

Topic

Green Materialisms

Instructors

Tristram Wolff

Meeting Info

University Hall 018 English: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This course introduces students to a sequence of "materialisms" worked out from the (long) 18th century to the present. While readings and discussions will gravitate toward contemporary Marxist and post-Marxist ecological thought (including the afterlives of ideas like "primitive accumulation" and "metabolic rift" in recent feminist, anti-colonial, and environmental frameworks), we will also spend substantial time looking at the writings and influence of earlier thinkers whose controversial materialisms have returned to critical attention in recent decades (e.g. Spinoza, Herder). A guiding aim of the course is to assemble a fuller sense of the historical and conceptual underpinnings of first-world environmentalism; so we will ask what "matters," and to whom, in large part by putting the nature of "greenness" under scrutiny as a critical category. Readings will emphasize theory and philosophy, but please note there is a strong and central emphasis on poetry throughout, as well.

Your grade for this course will be based on your attendance and regular participation, a shorter midterm essay, and a longer final essay in the form of a 10pp "conference paper." Assignment structure and expectations will be circulated separately for each.

All readings will be made available through Canvas. I will recommend editions of Spinoza's Ethics and Marx's early writings.

Teaching Method

Short lectures and seminar discussions.

Evaluation Method

Attendance & participation; short midterm essay; longer final essay.

Class Materials (Required)

Spinoza, Ethics (any edition, Penguin Classics preferred)
Marx, Early Writings (any edition, Penguin Classics preferred)