LI 211 - Topics in Global Literature: Climate Literature

Course Description

"Courses focus on literature produced outside the United States in locations affected by imperial expansion. Specific themes or topics might include Literatures of the Asian Diaspora, Latin American Literature and Cinema, or Literature of Europe's Borders. All topics include literature in at least three genres (selected from poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama). May be repeated for credit if topics differ."

Summer 2024 Section:

Section 004: Climate Literature

In this course we look at literary attempts to grapple with life in a changing climate. Many writers have wondered how to narrate and describe the experience of climate change; many have looked at ways in which the technology of the novel and the short story have particular strengths and weaknesses for wrapping our minds around this massive concept and its equally massive ramifications in our lives. In the course, we will look at texts examining human engagements with nature; we will see how writers have attempted to draw on different pre-existing genres to perform this kind of thinking, including science fiction, dystopias, and literary fiction; and see some of the intersections between fictional writing about climate and fictional writing about other important topics, like indigenous land use, commercialism, and feminist writing.