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2021/22 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL1340 Environment, Crisis and Creativity: Contemporary Nature Writing

20 creditsClass Size: 55

School of English

Module manager: Dr David Higgins
Email: D.Higgins@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2021/22

Module replaces

ENGL1330 'Writing the Environment'

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

How can the stories that we tell shape the natural world that we live in? Why does the landscape of Britain look the way that it does? And what is ‘nature,’ anyway? In this module you will explore these questions and others through a close encounter with one of the most exciting trends in contemporary British literature: the so-called New Nature Writing. This module will investigate how recent creative nonfiction combines natural history and memoir, connecting personal experience to ecological crisis. It will enable students from all disciplines to understand the vital role that language plays in our changing environment. You will have the option to submit your own creative writing for the final assessment.

Objectives

1. To familiarise students with some of the major texts, contexts, and scholarly interpretations of the British ‘New Nature Writing’
2. To enable students to analyse ‘New Nature Writing’ in relation to selected ecological concepts (e.g. rewilding)
3. To outline the distinctive characteristics of environmental approaches to the study of literary texts
4. To consider environmentalism from cultural, creative, historical, and ethical perspectives

Learning outcomes
By the end of this module, students should be able to:
1. show a detailed knowledge of the set texts, and interpret them in the context of critical debates about the ‘New Nature Writing’
2. understand British landscapes as produced by social, cultural, ecological, and political processes over time
3. appreciate the distinctive contribution that the study of literature can make to thinking about environmental crisis
4. identify some of the main controversies, problems, and priorities in the field of environmental literary studies
5. articulate their understanding of the set texts in essays that display an appropriate command of written expression

Syllabus

This module is about the cultural, artistic, and philosophical issues involved in human beings' relationships with the rest of the living world. In this time of environmental crisis, writers are finding radical new ways to represent landscapes and places. The books on this course explore depression, sickness, bereavement, and extinction, but also recovery, renewal, and the prospects of revitalising Britain’s depleted ecosystems. Literature can grant us unique insights into the causes and effects of environmental change, and this course is suitable for all students who enjoy reading about the natural world.
Our focus will be on recent prose works that combine natural history and memoir. We will consider them alongside ecopoetry; ecocriticism; environmental journalism; and selected ecological concepts, such as climate change, cultural landscapes, animal cognition, and rewilding.
You will write one short essay based on a close analysis of a set text, and a longer final assignment. That assignment can be either a traditional critical essay, or a creative essay in which you reflect on your studies on the module through original writing informed by literary traditions and your own observation of the places around you.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			179.00
Total Contact hours			21.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Reading of primary and secondary texts to be discussed in lectures and seminars; seminar preparation tasks; use of library and online resources; researching and writing assignments. Tutors will provide extensive guidance for private study activities.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Weekly dialogue in small-group seminars; opportunities for one-on-one meetings in tutors’ weekly support hours; opportunities to meet with departmental Writing Mentors; individual written feedback on first assignment.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1,000 word unassessed close reading	0.00
Essay	2,000 word critical/creative essay	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 30/06/2021 10:18:02

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