Module ENGL45730: Environmental Posthumanities

Department: English Studies

ENGL45730: Environmental Posthumanities

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This module aims to introduce students to what has been called a ‘non-human’ or ‘posthumanist’ turn in the environmental humanities, and invites them to pragmatically rethink the role of theory in an era of anthropogenic global warming, environmental degradation and mass extinction.
• To introduce students to ecocriticism and posthumanism as these discourses are practiced today, familiarizing them with the changes in emphasis these have undergone since their beginnings in the 1970s, taking into account our ever-evolving understandings of nature and technology and their increasingly complex imbrications.
• To broaden students’ analyses of literary texts in conversation with – but also beyond – the more human-based social justice concerns of class, gender and race that currently feature at the forefront of criticism. To introduce them to new critical tools by which to rethink our relationships to nonhuman animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and the abiotic environment.
• To familiarize students both in English studies and in the new Environmental Humanities MA with cutting-edge interdisciplinary theoretical approaches necessary to thinking through and critiquing our multifaceted environmental crises.

Content

• Building on the revised ‘posthuman ecologies’ section of the Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism L2 module (where the module convenor offers introductory lectures on ‘ecocriticism’ and ‘posthumanism,’ alongside ‘companion species’) the module’s first three weeks are devoted to identifying certain anthropocentric limitations currently faced by the environmental humanities. Our work together will inquire into how debates at the forefront of contemporary ecocriticism and posthumanism might help us respond to these. Students will be introduced to the work of Durham emeritus ecocritic Timothy Clark, along with posthumanist theorists Rosi Braidotti and Cary Wolfe, among others.
• The module’s next two weeks turn to two of the most prevalent discourses in theory today, above all where these concern ecological matters: New Materialism and Speculative Realism, along with the latter’s offshoot Object-Oriented Ontology. Students will gain an appreciation for the agency and dynamism of matter, and a realist approach to the worlds of nonhuman objects, both natural and technological. Key thinkers discussed will include Jane Bennett, Graham Harman and Timothy Morton.
• The following two weeks will introduce environmentalist readings of a variety of philosophers and theorists who would not traditionally be studied in depth in either Durham’s MLaC or Philosophy departments: Jacques Derrida, François Laruelle, Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead. Students will also develop a familiarity with secondary criticism concerning ecological interpretations of deconstruction, non-philosophy and process philosophy.
• Finally, the module’s final three works gradually broaden the scope of non-human or post-humanist theorizing, considering in turn animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and viruses, and closing with ‘elemental’ ecocriticism, or contemporary reconsiderations of earth, air, fire and water. The work of Donna Haraway, Michael Marder and Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, among others, will be studied.

Learning Outcomes

• On completion of this module, students will possess:
• An in-depth knowledge of a variety of theoretical and critical approaches to thinking beyond the human in ecocriticism and the environmental humanities.
• A familiarity with how discourses surrounding the human/environment relationship have evolved over the last fifty years.
• An ability to situate the ever-important discussions of class, gender and race within an ecological/environmentalist context.
• A greater appreciation for our duties to the non-human beings that make up our ecologies.

• Students studying this module will develop:
• Advanced critical skills in the close reading and analysis of literary and historical texts;
• An ability to offer advanced analysis of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature;
• An ability to articulate and substantiate at a high level an imaginative response to literature;
• An ability to demonstrate an advanced understanding of the cultural, intellectual, socio-political contexts of literature;
• An ability to articulate an advanced knowledge and understanding of conceptual or theoretical literary material;
• An advanced command of a broad range of vocabulary and critical literary terminology.  

• Students studying this module will develop:
• an advanced ability to analyse critically;
• an advanced ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in structured and systematic ways;
• an advanced ability to interpret complex information of diverse kinds through the distinctive skills derived from the subject;
• expertise in conventions of scholarly presentation and bibliographical skills;
• an independence of thought and judgement, and ability to assess acutely the critical ideas of others; •
• sophisticated skills in critical reasoning;
• an advanced ability to handle information and argument critically;
• a competence in information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access;
• professional organisation and time-management skills.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Students are encouraged to develop advanced conceptual abilities and analytical skills as well as the ability to communicate an advanced knowledge and conceptual understanding within seminars; the capacity for advanced independent study is demonstrated through the completion of two assessed pieces of work.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University