Universität Wien

124080 VK BEd 08a.3: VK Literature and Language Education (2023W)

Environmental Crisis in Literature

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
REMOTE

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 04.10. 15:00 - 19:00 Digital
  • Thursday 05.10. 15:00 - 19:00 Digital
  • Wednesday 15.11. 15:00 - 19:00 Digital
  • Thursday 16.11. 15:00 - 19:00 Digital
  • Wednesday 06.12. 15:00 - 19:30 Digital

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course explores literary fiction about nature and the environment. Focusing on, among other issues, the Anthropocene, cheap energy, multispecies justice, and climate change, this course examines how fiction engages with the problem of environmental crisis. From colonial representations of plants to sci-fi imaginings of the transforming world, literature addresses the ways humanity has been exploiting nature and the environmental, causing environmental degradation. This course foregrounds the importance of these images today, in the era of climate crisis. One of the chief goals of this course is to provide examples and outline clear ways of teaching environmentalism and multispecies justice through literary fiction at school.

Assessment and permitted materials

Active participation in class discussions; an oral presentation (a teaching approach); 2 written assignments; a BEd thesis (with an abstract)/an essay.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

• Active participation in class discussions: 10%
• Presentation (teaching approach): 40%
• BEd thesis (with an abstract)/Essay: 50%

To pass the course, students need to attain at least 60% and complete all assignments.

Examination topics

There will be no written exam at the end of this course.

Reading list

• Fred M. White’s “The Purple Terror” (1898)
• J. G. Ballard’s “Dream Cargoes” (1991)
• Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl (2009)

The two short stories will be made available via Moodle. Students need to purchase the novel (The Windup Girl). Students are encouraged to start reading the texts before the course begins.

Association in the course directory

Studium: BEd 046/407
Code/Modul: BEd 8a.3
Lehrinhalt: 12-4683

Last modified: Fr 15.09.2023 13:07