EN2ZI/EN3ZI Weird Nature

“We live on an alien planet filled with incredibly sophisticated organisms that we only partially understand,” writes New Weird author Jeff Vandermeer, “… our so-called smart-phones and other advanced technology are incredibly dull and primitive next to the diversity and intensity of other life on Earth.” This module examines the convergence of weird eco-literature from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with recent scientific research on the more than human world. Alongside established genres such as eco-gothic and the ‘new nature’ writing, we will explore the environmental uncanny of an Anthropocene epoch in which the combined (but unevenly experienced) effects of global heating, ecocide and the wholesale transformation of the earth elicit a rich array of literary and cultural responses. Authors may include Olga Tokarczuk, Eka Kurniawan, Rita Indiana, Fernanda Trías, Jeff Vandermeer, Mark Fisher, Derek Jarman, Nicole Seymour and Merlin Sheldrake.