Topics in Literature & Culture: Environment and Society in Modern Chinese Literature & Visual Culture

Course Number: 82-238

This course covers the most important topics and texts in both environmental humanities and modern Chinese literature, film, and culture. Thematically, this course focuses on deforestation, chemical pollution, climate change, ethnicity, toxic waste, and the extinction of species. The readings include literature, film, popular culture, environmental history, and new media. We will also read important theories as analytical tools by Rob Nixon, Karen Thornber, Ursula Heise, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Anna Tsing, William Cronon, etc. Each thematic topic is paired with a key concept in environmental humanities so that students can situate their study within the scholarship of environmental humanities. We will also explore Chinese environmental imaginations and realities from East Asian, comparative, global, as well as interdisciplinary perspectives.

All materials have English translations; No Chinese language required. Class discussions in English.

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Units: 9