Course content
This M.A. seminar will explore the significance of literary and cultural texts that engage with environmental issues, problems, and challenges, including human relations with nonhuman animals and environments. The texts and topics may include fiction, nonfiction, nature writing, poetry, film, and other media. Individual writers include Arab writers living in the Arab region and in diapora. Specific emphasis may be given to topics such as climate change, species extinctions, toxic environments, and pollution, as well as questions about sustainable models for interacting with nonhuman animals and environments. Critical and theoretical contexts will be drawn from academic fields such as ecocriticism, environmental humanities, ecofeminism, environmental justice, multispecies studies, human-animal studies, animality studies, and posthumanism.
Learning outcome
After completing this course you:
- Can read and interpretate Arabic primary sources
- can explain and analyze the significance of literary and cultural texts engaging with environmental issues, problems, and challenges, including human relations with nonhuman animals and environments;
- can understand and engage with theoretical developments in academic fields such as ecocriticism, environmental humanities, ecofeminism, environmental justice, multispecies studies, human-animal studies, animality studies, and posthumanism;
- can analyze literary and cultural texts in relation to discourses of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, disability, environment, and species;
- can situate literary and cultural texts in relation to particular historical and cultural contexts.