ENG4430 – Environmental Literature in English
Course description
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 will vary by semester, but genres may include fiction, nonfiction, nature writing, poetry, film, and other media. 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. Individual writers to be studied will vary, but will be drawn mostly from U.S. and other Anglophone contexts. 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 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.
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Overlapping courses
- 5 credits overlap with ENG4430EHS – Environmental Literature in English (Oslo School of Environmental Humanities).
Teaching
Seminars, 2 hours per week for 10 weeks.
- Canvas posts before each seminar (minimum 8, instructions to be distributed)
- Drafts of 3 assignments submitted by specified dates during the semester.?Read more here about rules concerning valid excuses and how to apply for postponements.?Information about?guidelines for obligatory activities.
- It is obligatory to show up for a minimum of 60% of the teaching. In this course you have to attend 6 of 10 seminars. The requirement is absolute.
The allowed absence limit will cover all absences, including illness. You will not be granted valid absences with documentation, even when the absence is due to something beyond your control.
If the course has in-person teaching, and you are signed up for an in-person seminar group, you are to attend the teaching in the location found in the schedule.
If the course has digital teaching, and you are signed up for a digital seminar group, you must attend via Zoom with your camera on.
In certain circumstances, i.e. serious or chronic illness, you could apply for?special needs accomodations.
All obligatory activities must be approved in the same semester for you to sit the exam.?Fulfilled course requirements are only valid the semester you attend the course.
Examination
The form of assessment?is?a portfolio consisting of revised versions of 3 assignments first handed in during the semester. Further instructions for the individual assignments and the portfolio will be distributed.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Resit an examination
A portfolio or equivalent that is passed may not be resubmitted in revised form.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.