WRITING, CULTURE AND ECOLOGY

Overview

This subject asks how writing has shaped relationships between 'culture' and 'nature' from the beginning of the Anthropocene in the late 1700s to the present. You will explore key literary scenes that have dramatically reimagined 'nature', 'the environment', and the future of life: from the poetry of untameable nature produced alongside the mass urbanisation of the Industrial Revolution; to the mode of ecological polemic that coincides with the rise of environmentalism as a political movement in the 1960s and 70s; to Indigenous story-telling as a caring for country through the violence of settler colonization; to writing in our present moment, with an awareness of what to many seems a foreshortened future. Literature has not always been a benign force in the relationships between people and the more-than-human world; what role does it have in understanding and storying the present and future of that relationship?

This is a level 3 subject. Please consider the subject pre-requisites before enrolling.

Portfolio

Office of the Provost

School

Subject coordinator

Alexis Harley

Subject type

Undergraduate

Year level

Year Level 3 - UG

AQF level

Level 7 - Bachelor Degree

Available as elective

Yes

Available to study abroad / exchange students

Yes

Capstone subject
Capstones provide students with a way of integrating and applying knowledge and skills gained throughout their course.

Academic progress review - Schedule A subject

Subject instances

To view instance specific details which include - Assessments, Class requirements and Subject instance coordinators - please select your preferred instance via the drop-down menu at the top right-hand side of this page.

Learning resources

Prescribed - Book - False Claims of Colonial Thieves

Prescribed - Book - The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

Prescribed - Book - Things Fall Apart

Prescribed - Book - Silent Spring

Prescribed - Other resource - Short fiction, poems and essays - available through LMS/Library

Prescribed - Web resource - Blade Runner 2049

Career ready

Work based learning (placement):No

Graduate capabilities

COMMUNICATION - Communicating and Influencing

COMMUNICATION - Cultural Intelligence and Global Perspective

DISCIPLINE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS - Creativity and Innovation

INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS - Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS - Research and Evidence-Based Inquiry

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL - Adaptability and Self-Management

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL - Ethical and Social Responsibility

Subject intended learning outcomes

On successful completion you will be able to:

Identify key debates in the field of ecocriticism and cultural ecology.

Demonstrate understanding of the ways literary texts engage with their literary, biomaterial, political, and historical contexts.

Formulate arguments based on critical analysis of a range of texts in environmental literature

Reflect critically on the practical and ethical role of literature in communicating ideas about the relationship between societies and environments

Learning activities

Lectures, tutorials, online learning activities, reading and viewing, assessment.

Handbook