Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty
Faculty of Humanities
Organization
BTK Department of English Studies
Code
BBI-ANG22-225E.09
Title
Reading Culture: Interdisciplinary Approaches: Environmental Humanities: An Overview of Key Ideas
Usual semester
Both
Published semester
2026/27/1
ECTS
3
Language
en
Learning outcomes
The main aim of the course is to acquaint students with major trends and key concepts in environmental humanities and ecocriticism. Through a variety of selected examples, the course offers a glimpse into the theoretical, literary and filmic interpretations and representations of major ecological phenomena from the 1960s to the present day.
Course content
Selected excerpts from theoretical works by ecological thinkers, literary works and films. During the course, we are going to tackle the concept of the Anthropocene, slow violence, petrofiction and hydrofiction as well as texts and other cultural products connected to the climate change and ecological grief. To a lesser extent, we are also going to discuss the main questions of decolonial ecocriticism as well as some of the related concepts of animal studies.
Assessment method
Grades offered on the basis of in-class activity, a shorter midterm test during the semester and a longer endterm test at the end of the semester.
Bibliography
a) compulsory: Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “Anthropocene Time.” History and Theory, vol. 57, no. 1, 2018, pp. 5-32. (excerpts) Coetzee, J. M. The Lives of Animals. 1999. Gosh, Amitav. The Nutmeg’s Curse. 2021. (selected excerpts) Mbue, Imbolo. How Beautiful We Were. 2021. (selected excerpts) Mundruczó, Kornél (dir). White God. 2014. Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. 2011. (selected excerpts) Serpell, Namwali. The Old Drift. 2019. (selected excerpts) b) recommended: Ferdinand, Malcom. Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World. 2021. Huggan, Graham and Helen Tiffin. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment. 2006. Morton, Timothy. Ecology Without Nature. Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. 2007. Whittle, Matthew and Jade Munslow Ong. Global Literature and Environment. 2024.

Programmes of the course

Title (code) Lang. Level Mandatory Year ...
BBA English and American Studies - English Specialisation (BTK-I-ANGANGOL-SPEC-NBEN) en 6 Mandatory 3/3
CEEPUS (BTK-CEEPUS-NXXX) en Mandatory
Erasmus Studies (BTK-ERASMUS-NXXX) en Mandatory
Guest Studies (BTK-I-VENDEG-NXEN) en Mandatory
Part-time Programme (BTK-RÉSZKÉP-NXHU) hu Mandatory
Part-time Programme (BTK-I-RÉSZKÉP-NXEN) en Mandatory
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