COURSE OVERVIEW.
Climate fiction or “cli-fi” describes any art or modes of storytelling concerned with anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. This seminar will investigate how fictional narratives and other artistic mediums from the emerging cli-fi genre can suggest new ways for thinking about what it will mean to live in a seriously altered climate and even afford opportunities for imagining more just and resilient futures. This seminar aims to establish the core themes and motifs of cli-fi, and compare key features and tenets of certain literary subgenres within the greater class of cli-fi, including Afrofuturism, Anthropocene fiction, eco-fiction, environmental science fiction, nature and new nature writing, solarpunk, speculative fiction, and utopian/dystopian fiction. Students will also chronicle the history and evolution of cli-fi, as well as adopt various theoretical approaches for interpreting cli-fi texts and the real-world phenomena related to anthropogenic climate change.
Each unit of study will afford opportunities to examine several literary and artistic experiments through one of five narrative templates of cli-fi, what Gregers Andersen calls “imaginaries”: (1) social collapse, (2) judgment, (3) conspiracy, (4) loss of wilderness, and (5) sphere. Assigned texts will include academic articles, cli-fi novels and short fiction, and key documents produced by international agencies. The workload is commensurate with expectations of a college-preparatory 12th-grade level. Assessment will emphasize preparation, participation in open debate, and perceptive critical engagement as demonstrated in both oral and written work.
This course is designed to help students learn key concepts and skills in literary studies so they can engage fiction and climate change in meaningful, transformative ways. Full investment in this course will enable students to:
Climate fiction or “cli-fi” describes any art or modes of storytelling concerned with anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. This seminar will investigate how fictional narratives and other artistic mediums from the emerging cli-fi genre can suggest new ways for thinking about what it will mean to live in a seriously altered climate and even afford opportunities for imagining more just and resilient futures. This seminar aims to establish the core themes and motifs of cli-fi, and compare key features and tenets of certain literary subgenres within the greater class of cli-fi, including Afrofuturism, Anthropocene fiction, eco-fiction, environmental science fiction, nature and new nature writing, solarpunk, speculative fiction, and utopian/dystopian fiction. Students will also chronicle the history and evolution of cli-fi, as well as adopt various theoretical approaches for interpreting cli-fi texts and the real-world phenomena related to anthropogenic climate change.
Each unit of study will afford opportunities to examine several literary and artistic experiments through one of five narrative templates of cli-fi, what Gregers Andersen calls “imaginaries”: (1) social collapse, (2) judgment, (3) conspiracy, (4) loss of wilderness, and (5) sphere. Assigned texts will include academic articles, cli-fi novels and short fiction, and key documents produced by international agencies. The workload is commensurate with expectations of a college-preparatory 12th-grade level. Assessment will emphasize preparation, participation in open debate, and perceptive critical engagement as demonstrated in both oral and written work.
This course is designed to help students learn key concepts and skills in literary studies so they can engage fiction and climate change in meaningful, transformative ways. Full investment in this course will enable students to:
- read, summarize, and analyze complex fictional texts with discernment and comprehension and with an understanding of their conventions—both formal and stylistic;
- draw on relevant political, historical, and scientific information to situate literary and cultural texts within wider debates and discourses about climate change;
- identify how literary and cultural texts complement or challenge other understandings of climate change;
- reflect on and critically analyze your own understandings of and feelings about climate change and the future;
- employ logic, creativity, and interpretive skills to produce persuasive and imaginative arguments about literature, culture, and climate change.
VIDEO GALLERY.
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Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye
National Geographic |
How We Could Change the Planet's Climate Future
David Wallace-Wells | TED Talk | 13 April 2020 |