Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
"Climate Change and the Literary Imagination"
In his essay about "climate change and the unthinkable", entitled The Great Derangement (2016; University of Chicago Press), the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh argues that contemporary artists - just like politicians - have revealed a deep-lying inability to grasp the scale and the likely consequences of global warming, so that the theme tends to be undeerrepresented in high-brow literary culture. Based upon Ghosh's insights, we shall try to fathom the formal characteristics of a few contemporary novels in English which do tackle the theme of climate change, whether or not they do so in the manner prescribed by the Indian author. We shall pay special attention to the following:
Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior (2012; HarperCollins)
Amitav Ghosh, Gun Island (2019; John Murray)
Richard Flanagan, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams (2020; Chatto & Windus)
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
1. Enhance the students' capacity for textual analysis and interpretation.
2. Encourage a reflection about our role as "implicated subjects" in a warming and divided world.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Nothing of the sort, but it will of course help to have, or wish to develop, a sense of preoccupation with the gravity our global situation.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
A few heuristic seminars; perhaps an exposure to the unthinkable.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Additional information:
Face to faces, if we can stand the confrontation.
Recommended or required readings
See above.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Additional information:
Among the criteria that will play a part in the evaluation, I wish to mention:
1. Diligence in terms of reading the recommended material.
2. Ability to develop a personal reflection based on said material.
3. Sincerity of commitment to literary culture / utopian thinking.
Work placement(s)
Not applicable.
Organizational remarks
The course will be organized in the first term. The seminars will be held on Mondays (9-11am) in room "Philo 2" (building A1).
The first meeting will be held on Monday 26 September 2022.
Contacts
Please contact Marc Delrez for any query concerning the course: marc.delrez@uliege.be