Literature and the Environment

This course is intended for students in the master's programme in English literature and students in the master's programme in education year 8-13 (lektorutdanninga, studieretning engelsk, jf. progresjonskrav for år 4).

This course fulfils the Literature and Society requirement for the master's programme in English literature.

This course may be taken as a single course by students who meet the admission requirements.

The course is an in-depth study of environmental writing in English of a particular country or region(s). It focuses on ways in which the relationship between nature and culture is viewed in the chosen texts, and how environmental writers foster a critical understanding about harmful aspects of human activity on the environment.

The course focuses on some of the following themes represented in literature: pollution, wilderness, apocalypse, animals, and global warming. The theoretical framework draws from traditional ecocritical readings of literature or discusses the questions of ecological justice and ecofeminism in a greater detail. The syllabus may encompass fiction and poetry in addition to essayistic texts.

Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS), or equivalent qualification, in English literature, or a degree combining English literature and a closely-related discipline (minimum 80 ECTS in English). An average grade equivalent to C or better (in the Norwegian grading system) is required.

Application code: 9371 - Enkeltemner på masternivå (Nordic applicants).

The students have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The student has:

• advanced knowledge of course-related concepts, including environmentalism and ecocriticism
• a clear understanding of the social, literary, historical, and cultural contexts in which writing about "nature" has developed
• a strong theoretical understanding of approaches to literature that attend to environmentalism

Skills

The student can:

• consider ways in which reading and writing can deepen our experience of the non-human world
• analyze primary and secondary texts and discern connections among them
• use relevant theoretical approaches to achieve independent insights about individual texts
• explain their ideas in a succinct, coherent manner and support them with close readings of the texts

If you pass the examination in this course, you will get an reduction in credits (as stated below), if you previously have passed the following courses:

• ENG-3130 Contemporary American Nature Writing 10 ects

The course meets once a week for 13 weeks for two hours of lecture and discussion. The lectures can be followed digitally.

Quality assurance:

All courses will be evaluated once during the period of the study program. The board of the program decides which courses will be evaluated by students and teacher each year.

Language of instruction and examination

This course is open to incoming exchange students.

Study level: Master’s

Admission prerequisites:
This course has admission prerequisites, which are listed under the Admission requirements section. Please review this information carefully before adding the course to your Learning Agreement.

For details on how to apply for exchange, course selection guidelines, or to contact the Incoming Admissions Team, please visit: Admissions for Student Exchange.

More info about the coursework requirements

• Give an oral presentation or a discussion of a topic (10 minutes). The oral presentation can also be given digitally.
• This course requires regular attendance. For students who miss more than 3 class meetings, it will be possible to submit a 400-word response paper addressing the topic for each class meeting missed.

More info about the assignment

Re-sit examination