ENGL 72.09 Ecocriticism

Recent critics have argued that our image of “nature” as static and separate from humans is our chief stumbling block in cultivating ecological thought.  In this course, we will read literature from the eighteenth century to track the emergence andenvironmental legacy of developments such as the Industrial Revolution and the Anthropocene, the geological epoch in which humans became the primary driver of climate change.  Topics will include the vogue for georgic poetry, the aesthetics of the sublime, colonial expansion, the rise of natural history, it-narratives and thing theory, and questions of the animal.  We will read contemporary theory about ecology and object-oriented ontology in the context of the eighteenth century and twenty-first century environmental concerns.

Degree Requirement Attributes

LIT

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Department-Specific Course Categories

Senior Seminar: Course Group II