Critical Ecologies
Beschrijving
Course goals
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
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Interpret literary and cultural texts (fiction, poetry, film, visual and multimodal works) in relation to environmental crisis, post-/decolonial theory, and Indigenous epistemologies.
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Analyse how different forms of storytelling and representation shape ecological knowledge, with attention to genre, voice, form, materiality, and medium.
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Collaborate on researching, documenting, and presenting an eco-cultural issue through creative, critical, or multimodal methods.
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Reflect critically on their own positionality, disciplinary background, and interpretive choices when engaging ecological questions.
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Produce a sustained, iterative project (research-based, creative-critical, curatorial, or documentary) that integrates:
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primary text analysis
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theoretical concepts
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collaborative inquiry
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and a strong reflective component.
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Content
Critical Ecologies examines the role of literature and cultural theory in imagining the relationship between humans, nonhumans, and the environment in an age of growing environmental crisis. The term “critical” in the course title refers both to this state of crisis and to the practices of critique and critical engagement that have emerged in response to it.
Focusing particularly on writing from the (post)colonial world, as well as non-Western and Indigenous thought concerning the entanglement and interconnectedness of humans and nonhumans, the course considers how literary texts—through their forms, voices, and narrative strategies—make visible alternative ways of understanding ecological relations. Students will engage closely with a range of narrative and poetic forms, bringing them into conversation with key theories and concepts from ecocriticism, animal studies, and post- and decolonial studies.
Through sustained reading, discussion, and collaborative inquiry, we will explore issues such as climate change, species extinction, environmental justice, sustainability, nonhuman agency, and Indigenous cosmologies. How can literature help us to critically rethink the increasing precarity of earthly life, and to reimagine the role of the human in planetary futures?
Additional information
Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September.
This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you are:
- a student in the BA Literary Studies enrolled in the specialisation Literature across Borders.
- a student in the BA TCS enrolled in the hoofdrichting Moderne letterkunde.
- a student in the minor Environmental Humanities.
- an exchange student and meet the course’s entry requirements.
In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.
This forms part of both the Literary Studies Specialisation (VP) “Literature across Borders" and the Minor in Environmental Humanities.
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