In this course you will explore the role of literature in producing and critiquing the entanglements between the human and the non-human on a rapidly changing planet.

You will consider tropes such as apocalypse, the end of nature and the post-human in relation to contemporary literature. You will encounter texts that address climate grief and other affective responses to incremental and catastrophic climate shifts.

You will be encouraged to critically consider key concepts such as 'nature', 'environment', 'animal' and 'human' as culturally contingent, and to understand the ways in which literary texts generate, contest and perform these concepts.

The literary texts discussed in this course - both fiction and non-fiction - all contribute powerfully to an understanding of the challenges we face in the Anthropocene era.