ECOLOGY AND LITERATURE

The course is part of:
- the Interdisciplinary activities [C] for the the English Studies curriculum of the Master's Degree Programme in European, American and Postcolonial Languages and Literatures (LLEAP) degree and the Joint European Master Degree in English and American Literary and Cultural Studies.
- the Interdisciplinary activities [C] for the Master’s Degree in Environmental Humanities (EH).
- the Core educational activities [B] of the Master's Degree Programme in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (LICAAM - South Asian Curriculum)

The main objective of the course is to enable students to address the relationship between literary/cultural texts and ecological issues from a theoretical perspective in a largely self-directed or autonomous manner.

Advanced reading, speaking and writing knowledge of English

SHAKESPEARE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE This course explores the multiple ways in which literature represents, illuminates, mediates the relationship between the human and the more-than-human, or, in more conventional terms, ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. We will be guided by the international scientific consensus warning of a planetary environmental crisis and by Amitav Ghosh’s fundamental observation that “The climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination.” We will be focusing on William Shakespeare, to show how a classic author – continuously adapted and reinvented by every time and culture in multiple cultural forms (theatre, film, poetry, fiction, visual arts, dance, memes, etc.) – can become our in an age of environmental crisis designated by the scientistas the Antrhopocene. We will explore his works looking for memory and vision, fear and hope, diagnosis and transformation, community and activism. We will discuss modern ecocritical interpretations of tragedies and comedies and strategies used by modern directors and actors to bring environmental concerns on the Shakespearean stage.

Primary texts:
W. Shakespeare, *Hamlet*, Arden Shakespeare Third series, Revised Edition, eds. Ann Thomson and Neil Taylor.
W. Shakespeare, *Midsummer's Night Dream*, Arden Shakespeare Third series, ed. Sukanta Chaudhuri.
W. Shakespeare, *The Tempest*, Arden Shakespeare Third series, eds. Alden T. Vaughan and Virginia Mason Vaughan.

Please note that Shakespeare editions are many and very different from one another, with different lengths and line numbers. So while you are certainly welcome to use additional versions (even with parallel texts and translations in your language of choice), it is indispensable that students are all equipped with these versions.

Critical essays by Gabriel Egan, Linda Charnes, Joseph Campana, Lynne Bruckner, Steve Mentz, Simon Estok and others available on the Moodle page.

The final exam will be based on group-based continuous assessment system and an individual final written exam. Students unable to attend and engage in team work will have a more extensive final written exam based on supplementary readings.

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Lectures and class discussion. Students are expected to attend regularly and to complete assigned readings before each class.

Questo insegnamento tratta argomenti connessi alla macroarea "Capitale naturale e qualità dell'ambiente" e concorre alla realizzazione dei relativi obiettivi ONU dell'Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile