This module extends the range of Discovering Literature and the Environment A, geographically and socially. Students will begin to take a more global view of writing on environmental topics, foregrounding voices from the Global South, people of colour, and working-class and/or LGBTQIA+ writers. Students will encounter a range of literary and critical works that respond to the intersections of environmentalism, gender, race and class.
In the second half of the semester, students will also engage with the ‘local’ as a category of environmental writing – students will think specifically about Birmingham, as a city and a campus, and engage critically in reflective or creative ways on their own experiences with the local environment. In particular, students might engage with specific cultural institutions in the local community – such as Winterbourne House, or the Birmingham Canals Trust – to reflect on the ways in which contemporary policy might structure responses to the environment.
By the end of this module you should have learnt the following Key skills:
- Demonstrate an understanding of how different populations, communities and individuals respond creatively to environmental change;
- Identify global, local and personal factors affecting perspectives on the environment and human impact upon it;
- Demonstrate awareness of the geographic and temporal dimensions of environmental writing;
- Reflect critically or creatively on their own experiences of the local environment.