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GM351B: ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS IN LITERATURE CULTURE C (2020-2021)

Last modified: 05 Aug 2021 13:04


Course Overview

In recent decades, environmental crisis has become a global concern. In this course we examine how literary writers have engaged with issues such as pollution, nuclear disaster and climate change. If we are to prevent future environmental disaster we need more than a scientific understanding of facts – we need to understand how attitudes towards the environment are culturally shaped, and how environmental discourse is generated, debated and circulated.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 3
Session Second Sub Session Credit Points 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Tara Beaney

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • German (GM)
  • Any Undergraduate Programme
  • One of Programme Level 3 or Programme Level 4 or Programme Level 5

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

From Chernobyl to Fukushima – nuclear disasters have provoked reflection on our attitudes towards risk and the consequences of our energy choices. So too have experiences of industrial pollution or reports of global warming. As awareness of current or impending environmental crisis has become increasingly widespread, the need for cultural understanding and debate has grown. This course addresses this pressing contemporary concern by encouraging students to examine cultural attitudes towards the environment in depth using techniques of textual analysis.

The course will situate contemporary environmental attitudes within historical context by introducing students to the environmental concerns that emerged around the late eighteenth century. We will consider what our present-day relationship with the environment owes to this Romantic heritage. As well as exploring the subsequent shaping of environmentalism, we will address some of today’s major environmental concerns such as pollution, energy supply and climate change. Some key texts will be selected for in-depth analysis: these will be literary works written within the last few decades. The course will focus on issues affecting central Europe, particularly Germany, though, since environmental crisis is rarely contained within national boundaries, many of the issues are global in nature. German honours students will be able to read some of the key texts in the German original, and thereby gain further linguistic competence, literary understanding, and enhance their knowledge of German culture and German environmentalism. Through comparative cultural analysis, students will be better able to appreciate different cultures of environmentalism and reflect upon their own environmental stances.

Primary texts may include, but are not limited to: Monika Maron, Flugasche (1981); Christa Wolf, Störfall (1987); Ilija Trojanow, EisTau (2011).


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 70
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

All presentations receive grades and are discussed individually within no more than 2 weeks. Essays are marked on the basis of specific marking criteria (as outlined in the course guide) and are returned with written feedback. Additional informal feedback on performance and seminar participation is offered in seminars. Tutors have office hours at which further feedback may be sought.

Word Count 2500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Presentation

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 30
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

All presentations receive grades and are discussed individually within no more than 2 weeks. Essays are marked on the basis of specific marking criteria (as outlined in the course guide) and are returned with written feedback. Additional informal feedback on performance and seminar participation is offered in seminars. Tutors have office hours at which further feedback may be sought.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Exam

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 100
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
FactualRememberILO’s for this course are available in the course guide.

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