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Narrating Climate Change

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Narrating Climate Change Literature and Place: Narrating Climate Change Dr. Everett Hamner Western Illinois University, Fall 2018, Thursdays 5:30-8 ENG 532: Q01 (Quad Cities Complex 2216), westernonline.wiu.edu Office hours M 10-12, W 10-11, Th 4-5 in QCC 2209 [email protected], 309-762-3999 x62247 General Catalog Description & Prerequisites The study of the works of one writer or a group of writers in terms of various geographies, political and otherwise. Specific Description & Goals This course considers emerging directions in very recent US literature as it engages pressing questions about anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Moving through three novels, a provocative film, a wide array of ecocriticism, a work of nonfiction journalism, and one text to be selected together, we will ask how and why homo sapiens is collectively destroying its habitat and that of other species. More critically, we will pursue solutions, asking how the cultural narratives we spread can cultivate them. The course’s first half will be the most weighty in terms of pages read and the science, history, and fiction we cover. In this phase, I will provide relatively extensive background information via lecture while we ponder two of the most widely celebrated climate change novels to date, Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior (2012) and Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 (2017), and study a very demanding and provocative film, Darren Aronfosky’s mother! (2017). Not coincidentally, these texts represent some of the greatest strengths of three major (if sometimes overlapping) subcategories of current climate fiction: realism, utopianism/solarpunk, and apocalyptic. After pausing at the midpoint to survey a rapidly expanding body of criticism about climate literature, we will further nuance our thinking by introducing the possibilities of climate metafiction and YA climate fiction. In Richard Powers’s stunning interlacing of the lives of trees and humans, The Overstory (2018), we will ponder the “long and prepared accident” by which cross-species attentiveness and other forms of wisdom can become tangible. With Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky (2016), we will consider how young adult (YA) and “new adult” fiction is beginning to engage climate change. The course will reach its climax as students finish seminar papers that connect its material to areas of personal interest. Students’ first priority should be to wrestle with each of our shared texts and to gain a solid grasp of critical insights emerging around this new literary category. Ultimately, though, the semester’s most significant outcome will be these individual projects. Considerable time will be dedicated to their gradual evolution, and students should begin that process as soon as potential foci become apparent. 2 Meeting, Reading/Viewing, & Assignment Schedule PLEASE NOTE: ~“READING,” “VIEWING,” or “WRITING” = watch, read, or complete in full BEFORE class ~“IN CLASS” = no preparation required Part One: Before 2018 st 1 WEEK, AUG 23RD: WARMUP IN CLASS: ~Local TV piece on climate change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgta3mXFseQ&feature=youtu.be ~Sampling of “Global Weirding” episodes https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6RkdaEqgRVKi3AzidF4ow/videos ~Syllabus review, discussion of goals and assignments, and introductions nd 2 WEEK, AUG 30TH: CLIMATE REALISM & THE SCIENTIFIC BASICS READING: ~Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior (2012), ch. 1-8 (pp. 1-214) IN CLASS: ~A climate science primer rd 3 WEEK, SEP 6TH: THE FORCES BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE DENIALISM READING: ~Kingsolver, Flight Behavior, ch. 9-14 (pp. 215-433) IN CLASS: ~A history of the climate wars th 4 WEEK, SEP 13TH: CLIMATE APOCALYPTIC VIEWING: ~mother! (Darren Aronofsky, dir., 2017; watch in advance) WRITING: ~Reflection due on W.O. under “Assignments” by 4 p.m. on 10/4) IN CLASS: ~My “nearly carbon-neutral” presentation this summer http://ehc.english.ucsb.edu/?p=17664 ~ The significance of genre th 5 WEEK, SEP 20TH: CLIMATE UTOPIANISM, SOLARPUNK, & ANGRY OPTIMISM READING: ~Kim Stanley Robinson, parts 1-4, New York 2140 (2017) IN CLASS: ~Robinson, “Rethinking our Relationship to the Biosphere” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=489I0gZlepM th 6 WEEK, SEP 27TH: FROM SUNK COSTS TO PRICELESSNESS READING: ~Robinson, parts 5-8, New York 2140 IN CLASS: ~José Luis de Vicente, “Angry Optimism in a Drowned World: A Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson” (Oct 2017) http://lab.cccb.org/en/angry-optimism-in-a-drowned-world-a-conversation-with-kim-stanley-robinson/ 3 Critical Interventions th th 7 & 8 WEEKS, OCT 4TH & 11TH: CLIMATE CRIT & THEORY READING: ONE per student (see “Annotation & Discussion Facilitation” on p. 8 below: ~Adeline Johns-Putra, “The Rest Is Silence: Postmodern and Postcolonial Possibilities in Climate Change Fiction.” Studies in the Novel 50.1 (Spring 2018): 26-42. ~Ben De Bruyn, “The Hot War: Climate, Security, Fiction.” Studies in the Novel 50.1 (Spring 2018): 43-67. ~*Mahlu Mertens and Stef Craps, “Contemporary Fiction vs. the Challenge of Imagining the Timescale of Climate Change.” Studies in the Novel 50.1 (Spring 2018): 134-53. ~Pieter Vermeulen, “Beauty That Must Die: Station Eleven, Climate Change Fiction, and the Life of Form.” Studies in the Novel 50.1 (Spring 2018): 9-25. ~Kara Thompson, “Traffic Stops, Stopping Traffic: Race and Climate Change in the Age of Automobility.” ISLE 24.1 (Winter 2017): 92-112. ~Alexa Weik von Mossner, “Vulnerable lives: the affective dimensions of risk in young adult cli-fi.” Textual Practice 31.3 (2017): 553–66. ~*Amitov Ghosh, “History” (part 2) in The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago, 2016. 85-116. ~Gregers Andersen, “Cli-fi and the Uncanny.” ISLE 23.4 (Autumn 2016): 855-66. ~Lindsay Thomas, “Forms of Duration: Preparedness, the Mars Trilogy, and the Management of Climate Change.” American Literature 88.1 (March 2016): 159-84. ~*Adam Trexler, “Introduction: Contextualizing the Climate Change Novel,” in Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change. Charlottesville: Virginia, 2015. ~*Bruno Latour, from “First Lecture: On the instability of the (notion of) nature,” in Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. 2015. Trans. Catherine Porter. Polity, 2017. 7-28. ~*Gerry Canavan, “Preface” and “Introduction: If This Goes On…” in Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction. Wesleyan, 2014 (ix-xii, 1-21). ~Janet Fiskio, “Apocalypse and Ecotopia: Narratives in Global Climate Change Discourse.” Race, Gender & Class 19.1-2 (2012): 12-36. WRITING: ~Annotation due on W.O. under “Discussions” by 4 p.m. on 10/4 IN CLASS: ~Student-led surveys of key claims & insights by selected critics: what is most helpful? Part Two: 2018 & Beyond th 9 WEEK, OCT 18TH: CLIMATE METAFICTION READING: ~Richard Powers, The Overstory (2018) (pp. 1-124) WRITING: ~Paper, Step 1: an initial, very rough mess of brainstorming about what texts & questions interest you most and about final project possibilities (500+ words), due on W.O. under “Discussions” by 4 p.m. Th 10/18 IN CLASS: ~My LARB conversation with Powers this spring: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/heres-to-unsuicide-an-interview-with-richard-powers/ F-Sa 10/19-20: 15th Annual EGO / ΣΤ∆ Conference: Thriving (or Living) in a Digital World (Macomb) 4 th 10 WEEK, OCT 25TH: WHAT’S CRAZIER? READING: ~Powers, Overstory (pp. 124-255) WRITING: ~Paper, Step 2: Polished Prospectus. A much sharper prospectus for the course’s final paper that (a) describes key texts and questions, (b) offers a tentative thesis and presents examples of the kinds of evidence that might support it, and (c) lists at least 5 secondary non-course texts that you may engage (500+ words), due online by 4 p.m. Th 10/25 IN CLASS: ~Pitching your paper to a fellow student: what might be at stake? th 11 WEEK, NOV 1ST: UNSUICIDE READING: ~Powers, Overstory (pp. 256-375) IN CLASS: ~Powers & the future of climate fiction th 12 WEEK, NOV 8TH: FINISH OVERSTORY READING: ~Powers, Overstory, part 4, “Seeds” (pp. 375-end) WRITING: ~Paper, Step 3: Half Draft. 1500+ words of rough draft, due online by 4 p.m. Th 11/8 IN CLASS: ~Paper workshopping th 13 WEEK, NOV 15TH: NO CLASS (EVERETT AT CONFERENCE) WRITING: ~Paper, Step 4: Short Annotations. Three 250-word annotations for selected works of theory and/or criticism that your final paper may engage (aim for roughly 1/3 summary and 2/3 analysis), due online by 4 p.m. Th 11/15 TH 11/22: NO CLASS (THANKSGIVING BREAK) th 14 WEEK, NOV 29TH: YA CLIMATE FICTION READING: ~Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (2016) WRITING: ~Paper, Step 5: full-length (3000+ words) draft due online by 4 p.m. Th 11/29 IN CLASS: ~Paper workshopping 5 th 15 WEEK, DEC 6TH: MINI CONFERENCE IN CLASS: ~Paper, Step 6: Mini Conference Presentations FINALS WEEK, DEC 13TH: WHAT’S NEXT WRITING: ~Paper: final version due online under “Assignments” by Th 12/13 IN CLASS: ~Looking ahead to spring coursework and beyond Texts for Purchase PLEASE NOTE: *Prices below are rounded from recent amazon.com new prices—that site has free 2-day shipping for students. In many cases, used copies can be purchased less expensively (also try bookfinder.com). *I am happy for students to use complete electronic versions of texts so long as they use appropriate citation methods when writing papers and can accept occasional challenges in finding a given passage. • Kingsolver, Barbara. Flight Behavior. Harper Perennial, $11. ISBN: 978-0062124272. • Robinson, Kim Stanley. New York 2140. Orbis, $12. ISBN: 978-0316262316. • mother! (no need to buy film: 7 DVD & 2 blu-ray copies available via RiverShare public library system; available to stream via Amazon, YouTube, Google, iTunes, etc.) • Powers, Richard. The Overstory. Norton, $18. ISBN: 978-0393635522. • Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky.
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