Assessed Essay Questions

Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies

Assessed Essay Topics

Intermediate year: 2000 words (70%)

Finalists: 3000 words (70%)

Consult essay deadlines on departmental website for due date.

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The following topics are suggestions. You may modify them, or devise one of your own, but should do so only in consultation with your seminar tutor (either by email or in person).

While you may range as widely as you like in examples of Climate Imaginaries, not necessarily confining yourself to books studied on the module, you should make detailed reference to at least ONE book/film/image/theory/song, etc. studied during the module. *Unless answering the final question (15).

1. ‘Let us make no mistake: the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination.” Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement. (2016)

Write an essay arguing the case for the critical significance of ‘the imaginary’ as a crucial category for confronting climate change.

2. Commentators on climate change often refer to the scale of the phenomenon. How is this treated in at least one climate imaginary you have studied in the module?

3. Referring to at least one instance as an example, write an essay on climate activism, eliciting its specific approach, its objectives and commenting on its effectiveness. (The example can be either fictional or real —or both).

4. “We live in a petrol world.’ Stefanie Lemenager, Living Oil(2014)

Write an essay on the cultural and/or aesthetic registration of fossil fuel(s) and/or renewable energy as a crucial feature in climate texts. Refer to at least one text we have studied in the term.

5. So many works of ‘clifi’ render post-apocalyptic or dystopian visions of drastically transformed worlds. Referring in detail to at least one example, argue the case for or against renditions of climate ‘doom’. (You may, instead, want to write on ‘hopeful’ visions instead.)

6. Write an essay on the importance of either Time OR ‘The Past’ OR ‘History’ in at least one climate imaginary.

7. “Gradual climate degradation will increase human migration pressures. Warmer temperatures and changing precipitation patterns are expected to accelerate migration and population displacement. Recent analysis of climate induced migration may use different labels to describe it — climate migration, environmental migration, or climate refugees — each with political and analytical effects that are themselves fascinating to examine. But even with the methodological and terminological challenges, the evidence is abundant: a combination of rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and changing precipitation patterns will likely affect migration patterns in the decades to come.” Gregory Whyte, Climate Change and Migration: Security and Borders in a Warming World(2011)

Write an essay on how the migrant or refugee or displaced person (or animal) is represented in at least one climate imaginary you have studied on the module.

8. “One might argue that most culture still ignores the facts of global warming, and that denial is the real hallmark of the present.” Andreas Malm, The Progress of this Storm(2018)

How and why is denial a key theme in at least one climate imaginary you have encountered on the module?

9. Write an essay on the importance of one of the following in at least one climate imaginary:

war and/or the military; the weather; gender; water; the non-human (animal, mineral, vegetable or a combination of these); science and/or the scientist; the Law; machines; the weird or uncanny; landscapes; climate politics; sound; education; social class; extinction; ‘race’ and/or racism; violence; language; nostalgia; disasters; the speculative; the State; capitalism and corporate power; failure; repair and/or regeneration; utopianism.

10. Is climate change best registered as dramatic spectacle or as something much more banal? Give examples of both from the texts we have covered and make a call on what appears more important or ‘effective’ in your view.

11. “Do you ever find yourself just thinking about the sun?” Hester, in Flight Behaviour (p.464)

In what ways does the sun feature in climate imaginaries? Refer to at least one text we studied in your answer.

12. How do some climate imaginaries view the media (press/television/socials/commercials, etc.) as a significant issue in communicating and understanding climate change and/or influencing action on it?

13. Can climate change ever be ‘funny’? Refer to at least one climate imaginary we have looked at in your answer.

14. Why is ‘futuring’ a critical and/or useful technique for exploring climate imaginaries?

15. Make a case for the inclusion of a text (or genre or specific imaginary) you have read/seen/played that is not on the syllabus. Your essay must refer in passing to at least one set text from the module by way of comparison. (“Text” is not necessarily confined to a work of fiction such as a novel. It can also mean a play, poem, advert, song, etc., but also non-fiction work, or films, video games, etc. – run it by your tutor first!)