2024-25

Dr Nick Lawrence (n dot lawrence at warwick dot ac dot uk)
Office hours: Tues. 2-3pm, Thurs. 10-11am (FAB5.15)

Module aims: The principal aim of the module is to investigate the implications of the concept of the Anthropocene for literary-cultural studies on a world scale. Participants will read initially in the history of debates surrounding this term – denoting the advent of a geological era in which human action acquires decisive planetary force – as a way of revisiting conventional interpretive frameworks and categories, including questions of periodisation, comparative methodology and the ‘worlding’ of literary study. We will then take up a series of optics prompted by the Anthropocene and its counter-concepts (Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Growthocene et al.) to further explore the challenges of reading ecological crisis and culture in an era when it is no longer feasible to disarticulate human from so-called natural history. Texts range from literary works to field-specific criticism to theoretical writings, with an emphasis on the latter.

Assessments: See MA Handbook for deadlines and variable assessed essay lengths.