SE2614: Writing Nature from Romanticism to the Present
School | English Literature |
Department Code | ENCAP |
Module Code | SE2614 |
External Subject Code | 100319 |
Number of Credits | 20 |
Level | L6 |
Language of Delivery | English |
Module Leader | DR James Castell |
Semester | Autumn Semester |
Academic Year | 2018/9 |
Outline Description of Module
On the edge of ecological catastrophe, we live in a world where nature has arguably never been scarcer. Yet, from the Romantic period to the present day, nature writing in both poetry and prose has burgeoned and become one of the most significant subgenres in English Literature. In our contemporary moment, as environmental concerns become ever more urgent, what has become known as the ‘new nature writing’ is a publishing phenomenon.
This transhistorical module will focus on poetry and prose written in English from James Watt’s invention of the steam engine in 1784 to the present day. In other words, it will focus on writing about nature from an important moment when human impacts upon it increased exponentially. Structured thematically by place, each session of the module will compare writing by men and women from diverse periods, situating these writers and their work within varied environments and historical contexts. It will interrogate the concept of ‘nature’ itself and work closely with a range of ecocritical theory as well as the increasingly widespread notion of the Anthropocene.
Faced with a crisis in humanity’s relationship with the nonhuman world, how should we write nature? Where does it begin and end? How do different writers attempt to capture different places? What are the politics of these places? In a world marked by a sense of deep pessimism, how can we start to imagine their future?
Students will be encouraged to read and work outdoors where appropriate.
On completion of the module a student should be able to
- Understand the content and closely analyse the form in a variety of different genres of nature writing
- Demonstrate knowledge of the historical context of literary works from 1784 to the present day and compare them to each other
- Engage with a wide-range of relevant secondary reading, especially ecocriticism
- Pose theoretical questions about nature and how art works respond to it
How the module will be delivered
The module will be delivered through a one-hour lecture and a two-hour seminar per week. The lecture will provide context and a number of different angles of entry into the primary texts. It will also paraphrase from exemplary secondary readings. This will act as preparation for the seminar, which will use a range of stimulus materials in order to generate discussion: these might include the texts themselves, responses to them, images, and video. Students will also be encouraged to read poems aloud in the seminar and may be asked to give unassessed presentations.
Skills that will be practised and developed
- Close literary analysis
- Synthesis of complex information
- Developing and making an argument
- Conceptual questioning
- Oral communication in seminars
- Written communication through the assessed essay
How the module will be assessed
This module is examined by means of a 3200-word essay during the end-of-semester examination period. It is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the English Literature Course Guide. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.
Assessment Breakdown
Type | % | Title | Duration(hrs) |
---|---|---|---|
Written Assessment | 100 | Essay | N/A |
Syllabus content
Week 1
Indoors and Outdoors: an introduction to the module
Week 2
What is nature?
From Raymond Williams, Keywords
From Jonathan Bate, The Song of the Earth
From Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought
Week 3
Rivers
From William Wordsworth, The Prelude and The River Duddon
Wallace Stevens, ‘The River of Rivers in Connecticut’ and ‘The Solitude of Cataracts’
From Alice Oswald, Dart
From Philip Gross, Severn Song
Week 4
Coasts
Charlotte Smith, ‘Beachy Head’
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘Break, break, break’
Matthew Arnold, ‘Dover Beach’
Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘The Sea and the Skylark’
From Kathleen Jamie, Sightlines and The Overhaul
Week 5
Mountains
From William Wordsworth, The Prelude (Snowdon)
From Henry David Thoreau, from ‘Ktaadn’ in The Maine Woods
From Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain
From Robert MacFarlane, Mountains of the Mind
Week 6
Forests
William Wordsworth, ‘Nutting’
From Robert Frost, North of Boston, Mountain Interval and New Hampshire
From Henry David Thoreau, Walden
From Roger Deakin, Wildwood
From Alice Oswald, Woods etc
Week 7
Farms
From John Clare, The Shepherd’s Calendar and Robert Bloomfield, The Farmer’s Boy
From Ted Hughes, Moortown Diary
From James Rebanks, The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District
Week 8
Suburbs and Edgelands
Philip Larkin, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’
From Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, Edgelands: Journeys into England’s True Wilderness
From Richard Mabey, The Unofficial Countryside
From Iain Sinclair, London Orbital
Week 9
Cities
From William Wordsworth, The Prelude (London)
William Wordsworth, ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’
Ted Hughes, ‘On Westminster Bridge’
Alice Oswald, ‘Another Westminster Bridge’
From Peter Finch, Real Cardiff
Week 10
Placing ourselves in the Anthropocene: the end of nature?
Timothy Clark, ‘The Anthropocene – Questions of Definition’ in Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept
Essential Reading and Resource List
Because the primary reading (as indicated above) is principally short poems or extracts from longer works, it will be provided in a course reader. An extensive secondary reading list will be made available in the Module Guide.