ENGL 12019 - The Watery Part of the World

Course Credit: 1
(ENVS)
This course will consider the ocean as a literary subject, with a special focus on its relation to the economic and political history of empire and globalization, and the ecological crises that have arisen from these historical developments. As an introduction to literary and cultural studies, the course will also explore a wide array of cultural productions from a variety of genres and time periods, including the ancient epic, renaissance drama, the nineteenth-century novel, and contemporary lyric poetry, as well as essays in environmental philosophy, popular journalism, and documentary film. Topics will include: global warming and ocean acidification, animal ethics and the crisis of mass extinction, and the role of the humanities in theorizing our planetary future. [AH]