551.335 (21S) Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Friends of the Earth: Environmentalism in American Literature
Überblick
Weitere Informationen zum Lehrbetrieb vor Ort finden Sie unter: https://www.aau.at/corona.
- Lehrende/r
- LV-Titel englisch Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Friends of the Earth: Environmentalism in American Literature
- LV-Art Seminar (prüfungsimmanente LV )
- LV-Modell Onlinelehrveranstaltung
- Semesterstunde/n 2.0
- ECTS-Anrechnungspunkte 8.0
- Anmeldungen 5 (20 max.)
- Organisationseinheit
- Unterrichtssprache Englisch
- mögliche Sprache/n der Leistungserbringung Englisch
- LV-Beginn 10.03.2021
- eLearning zum Moodle-Kurs
-
Anmerkungen
This is a block seminar which will be taught online in altogether 6 blocked sessions.
Attendance (online) of the first double session on March 10, 2021 is mandatory.
Enrolled students will be informed about the exact format of the class by email.
Zeit und Ort
LV-Beschreibung
Intendierte Lernergebnisse
Students will learn to articulate how American writers have explored American relationships to nature as well as the environmental activist movements that, historically, have questioned and protested against ecologically destructive practices. They will establish connections between such texts and contemporary environmental problems.
Lehrmethodik inkl. Einsatz von eLearning-Tools
Short lecture inputs; in-depth discussions of assigned texts (online).
Inhalt/e
In this seminar, we will look at a range of American novels that explore the costs and benefits of environmental activism. What can activism achieve and what are the risks involved for those engaging in it? Which forms of activism are the most effective and how much radicalism can be justified? These are some of the questions we will explore in this class. We will start out with Edward Abbey’s influential classic The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), and then move on to four more recent novels that all feature activists fighting against ecologically destructive practices such as logging, mountaintop removal mining, genetical modification, and carbon pollution: Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation (1998), Ann Pancake’s Strange as this Weather Has Been (2007), T.C. Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth (2000), and Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (2020). What unites these novels is that they shed a critical light on the “American Way of Life” specifically, and on the unsustainable Western lifestyle more generally, while also interrogating the efficacy of protest and rebellion. We will discuss the various approaches to environmental ethics that these texts express and bring them in conversation with each other as well as with the environmental issues facing American society today.
Literatur
Edward Abbey. The Monkey Wrench Gang. Any edition.
Ruth Ozeki. All Over Creation. Any edition.
Ann Pancake. Strange as this Weather Has Been. Any edition.
T.C. Boyle. A Friend of the Earth. Any edition.
Kim Stanley Robinson. The Ministry for the Future. Any edition.
All other texts will be provided by the instructor on Moodle.
Prüfungsinformationen
Prüfungsmethode/n
Participation 30%
Response paper 20%
Final paper 50%
Beurteilungsschema
Note BenotungsschemaPosition im Curriculum
- Masterstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik
(SKZ: 812, Version: 18W.1)
-
Fach: Literature and Culture Studies
(Wahlfach)
-
3.4 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies I (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
- 551.335 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Friends of the Earth: Environmentalism in American Literature (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS) Absolvierung im 2. Semester empfohlen
-
3.4 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies I (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Literature and Culture Studies
(Wahlfach)
- Masterstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik
(SKZ: 812, Version: 11W.1)
-
Fach: Film, Literature and Culture Studies
(Wahlfach)
-
Advanced Topics in „Film, Literature and Culture Studies” (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
- 551.335 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Friends of the Earth: Environmentalism in American Literature (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
-
Advanced Topics in „Film, Literature and Culture Studies” (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Film, Literature and Culture Studies
(Wahlfach)