EN4267 Literature and Ecology
Instructors
A/P Chitra Sankaran, Module Chair
Dr Gayatri Thanu Pillai, Research Fellow
Description
Literary Studies has prided itself on constantly being in flux in the postmodern era as a sign that it responds to ideological and social changes. The most pressing contemporary issue that affects all of humanity is the global environmental crisis. In keeping with its revisionist energies, one important field of literary study that has opened up over the past two decades is ecocriticism, which explores the connections between literature and the environment. Ecocriticism critiques anthropocentrism and offers a radical revaluation of human relationship with the non-human ‘other’.
Learning Outcomes
As a 4000-level module, the course introduces a rapidly-developing field in literary studies and fills an important curricular gap. It introduces ecocritical theory and its various affiliations, such as
- Postcolonial ecologies
- Ecofeminism
- Littoral literatures
- Animal studies
and others, through the study of literary texts ranging from the ‘canonical’ to the peripheral, precisely to highlight and challenge such binaries that are a legacy of humanism. The critical divide that pivots around the human versus the non-human will be examined in order to arrive at a conceptual understanding of ecocriticism as ideology, philosophy and ethical practice.
As a module that aims to impart and also sharpen conceptual resources, it will familiarize students with foundational theoretical works in the field of ecocriticism. The learning outcomes will be especially useful to Honours level, and, potentially, graduate students, who interested in pursuing environmental humanities or any subset of it ranging from Ecocriticism and World Literature; Zoomorphism; and the import of these on Literary Studies.
Syllabus
The course will introduce students to the dynamic field of ecocriticism with its various sub-fields. The topics that will be covered during the semester are listed below in order:
- Week 1 – General Introduction to Ecocriticism
- Week 2 – Deep & Shallow Ecologies
- Week 3 – First & Second Wave Ecocriticism
- Week 4 – Tropes in Ecocriticism
- Week 5 – Postcolonial Ecocriticism
- Week 6 – Ecofeminism [Mid-Term Assessment]
- Term Break
- Week 7 – Ecojustice
- Week 8 – Animal Studies/Zoomorphism
- Week 9 – Consultation for Term Paper.
- Week 10 – Plants and Trees - Arboreal Representations/Submission of Term Paper Proposals
- Week 11 – Posthumanism/Material Ecocriticism.
- Week 12 – Ecocriticism in Asia
- Week 13 – Concluding Session/Submission of Term Paper
PRIMARY TEXTS:
SHORT STORIES:
- Shooting an Elephant – George Orwell
- Sunrise on the Veld – Doris Lessing
- Lake – Lily Yulianti Farid
- Salt – Mahasweta Devi
- Diary of an Interesting Year - Helen Simpson
NOVELS:
- The Lives of Animals – JM Coetzee
- The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin
FILM:
- The Red Turtle - Animated Film