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ENGL 486: Literature in the Anthropocene

In 2000, scientists informally proposed a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. In 2009, the International Union of Geological Sciences began to consider this proposal in earnest. In 2024, it was rejected. Nonetheless, the idea of the Anthropocene persists as a reminder that human activity is now so far-reaching as to have altered the fabric of the planet. With that awareness comes an ethical dilemma: how do we prevent and redress negative impacts on the world’s ecosystems? This, in turn, presents a creative and representational challenge: how do we recognise and reimagine this responsibility?

Through a series of readings, this course explores concepts from literary studies and the wider humanities that attempt to address just these questions. We will consider, among others, solarpunk, dystopianism, apocalypticism, ecofeminism, indigenous futurism, climate justice, and multispecies justice. We will read novels such as Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army (published in the US as Daughters of the North), Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, John Lanchester’s The Wall, and Richard Powers’s The Overstory, and a range of short stories and poems by, among others, Helen Simpson and Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner.