Writing the Environment (Q3164)

30 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

It is urgent that we question the relationship between ourselves and the natural world. In this module, we will explore the relationship between writing and our urban, cultural and natural environments. 

The environmental humanities pay particular attention to the relationship between the arts and ecology (including questions of climate change). An ecological perspective understands the entangled relationships between life-forms of incredible variety. This module proceeds by challenging the human-animal’s assumption of ‘species exceptionalism’, the false assumption that the human stands outside the realm of the animal.

Questions of the environment provide us with a framework to explore just some of the places and landscapes habited or imagined by writers and artists, in both a local and a global sense. 

The module includes fieldwork to help us locate the literary imagination in real places. This may include (but will vary each year):

• Henry James and Joseph Conrad in Rye
• Virginia Woolf in Newhaven and at Monk’s House
• Graham Greene in Brighton
• Raymond Williams in Seaford
• Derek Jarman in Dungeness.

Throughout this module, we will develop critical knowledge and awareness of the 'inextricable' relations between literature and the environment. You will acquire a critical and conceptual vocabulary for analysis of literature from an ecological perspective.  

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2021/22. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.