Handbook

The Anthropocene refers to the new geological era where human activity has become a profound force on the Earth’s systems and processes. Putting this into context, Reading Natures examines literary representations of the natural world and human society’s place within it from the late 18th century—considered as the beginning of anthropogenic climate change—to the present. The course will familiarize you with some of the most exciting new developments in critical thought such as posthumanism, new materialism, naturecultures, deep time, ecosmopolitanism and ontopower. You will also develop your own eco-concepts and living vocabularies of the world’s rapidly changing Imaginary. What might an eco-critical praxis look like? This course, which can be taken either as an English or a Creative Writing subject, solicits new answers to how to read nature and the nature of reading in the Anthropocene.