ENGL 6755 - [Critical Ecologies]

Fall. Next Offered: 2020-2021. 4 credits. Student option grading.

E. Cohn.

How have writers and theorists of the Anthropocene reinvented “nature,” imagining its forms of life, and of catastrophe? How might literature help navigate environmental crisis? This course examines British environmental literature and ecocritical discourse in the era of coal capitalism, from 1800 to present, with emphasis on the afterlives of romantic ecological poetics. We will examine a range of genres and modes, from scientific treatise to utopian writing, pastoral elegy, lyric, and novel as they theorize place and deep time, critique industrial capitalism, and envision global environments. As we consider how the nineteenth century informs our own moment, we’ll also evaluate the role of literature in critical accounts of post-nature and the Anthropocene. Writers will include: Blake, Clare, Wordsworth, Shelley, Brontë, Dickens, Hardy, Naidu.