CO4038 Environmental Imaginations

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

15

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Students should be undertaking a degree with Comparative Literature as a named subject. Visiting students must seek approval from the CO Honours Adviser prior to enrolment.Student numbers are capped at 14. CO students have priority;

Module coordinator

Dr D Benvegnu

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Damiano Benvegnu, Dr Robin MacKenzie

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module introduces students to the relatively new field of ecologically oriented literary and cultural studies, often referred as Environmental Humanities. We will critically engage with various transnational cultural constructions of environmental concepts and practices in a range of artworks exemplifying different discourses of nature (e.g. mythological, philosophical, scientific) and media (e.g. literature, cinema, land art, music, etc.). We will thus explore how an artwork can convey narratives of environmental resistance and ecological liberation as well as embody the historical continuity between human communities and specific territories. In addition, consideration will be given to the emergence of a number of distinct theoretical approaches within the Environmental Humanities, such as critical ecofeminism, biosemiotics, environmental justice, critical animal studies, new materialism, and posthumanism.

Assessment pattern

Coursework - 100%

Re-assessment

Coursework - 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

A 1.5-hour seminar per week for 10 weeks. Students will also have access to weekly office hours.

Scheduled learning hours

15

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

150

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • understand some of the implications of ecological thinking about literary and cultural studies
  • recognize and discuss critically the cultural assumptions about ‘nature’ and ‘the environment’ informing a variety of significant (religious, philosophical and creative) texts from a range of geographical and historical contexts
  • identify several distinct approaches within ecocritical literary and cultural studies, and apply at least one of these
  • elaborate on the implications of their own assumptions regarding nature and the body for their self-understanding, relations with others and mode of being in the world
  • develop their skills in the areas of research, textual analysis and interpretation, and communication, both oral (via seminar participation) and written