CLCS 332 Affective Narratives in the Age of Environmental Degradation
The seminar explores the narrative strategies deployed by scholars and novelists to engage with the challenges of global warming. Through media and scientific reports, fictional narrations, and critical theory, we will explore the underlying emotions arising from thinking about the present in times of future losses. We will explore the challenges and impact of thinking and coping with often contradictory narratives about global warming and disrupted ecologies. On the one hand, the prospect of environmental disruptions confronts us with the legacy of previous generations, reluctant politics, and aggressive lobbying of extractive industries. On the other hand, we must act responsibly and think creatively as we nurse the hope that innovative and sustainable projects will save the planet. Squeezed between reports on past negligence, future threats and losses, the present comes as an impasse: what is the role of narratives in technology, film, literature and politics as we negotiate this impasse?