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Module Content and Indicative Topics

‘Global Literature and the Anthropocene’ has a twofold focus: on the one hand it explores prominent critical debates within literary-cultural studies that surround the concept of the Anthropocene; on the other hand it examines how literature has given form to the challenges of representing climate change on a global scale. A first part of the course focuses on the term of the Anthropocene: that geological time in which human activities acquire significant consequences on the planet’s ecosystems. It will discuss its effects on issues of periodisation and literary history, and on issues of critical and comparative analysis within global literature. We will continue by exploring critiques of the Anthropocene and investigating several of its alternatives (Capitalocene, Black Anthropocene, Misanthropocene, Chthulucene) to further inquire into issues of the relation between human and nature, the posthuman and the socio-economic consequences of ecological devastation. Throughout, these theoretical debates will be accompanied by analyses of literary texts: we will delve into the specifics of literary form, representation and problems of geographical and historical scale.

Primary reading may include selections from various authors such as Octavia Butler, Joseph Conrad, Amitav Ghosh, Ghassan Kanafani, Theis Ørntoft, Andrey Platonov, Julianna Spahr.

Teaching Delivery

The teaching will be divided over three tutors who will each deal with their respective specialism in this field of research. They will deal with critical theory, with a focus on how the concept of the Anthropocene has been appropriated and developed in the arts and humanities, and concentrate on literary works from different regions and in different languages, including English. All texts will be made available in English or English translation, as appropriate, but may also be read in the original language.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

• have gained knowledge and understanding of some crucial debates surrounding the Anthropocene and its implications for comparative literary study.

• critically consider the broad parameters of the study of the Anthropocene as a mode of inquiry within a wide, international and cross-cultural domain;

• be able to read closely and analytically a series of texts and other materials from a range of different cultures and traditions;

• be able to make theoretically-informed questions and arguments about the different challenges the Anthropocene poses for literature and critical theory

Recommended Reading

In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library:

Davies, Jeremy, The Birth of the Anthropocene, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2016.

Ghosh, Amitav, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Trexler, Adam, Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change. Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 2015.