230457 EcoGothic Literature and Culture (S) (SoSe 2020)

As one of the defining discourses of our time, climate change is a central topic negotiated in literature and culture. In this seminar, we are going to explore the genre of ecogothic literature and culture from different angles. Since we live in truly ecogothic times with one result being the coronavirus pandemic, this seminar is offered as project work in a LernraumPlus. Students can engage in research groups on several topic clusters (e.g. theory, the gothic and the ecogothic, celebrity culture and climate change, close literary and cultural analysis of primary material, theory and activism). We’ll analyse literature such as Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1998) or John Burnside’s Glister (2008), but also documentaries and films such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006), The Guardians of the Earth (2017) or Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow (2004).
After the seminar, students have a thorough overview of central approaches in environmental humanities, an overview of primary material dealing with the topic and the dominant genres in which the topic is dealt with, an overview of how medial channels impact on the topic; finally, they can find their own stance on how theory and activism can be connected to each other.