Course explores big questions about animals and the environment through the lens of post-1900 U.S. literature. We will pay particular attention to interactions between human and nonhuman animals in uniquely “American” productions. A number of pressing topics will be discussed, including species extinction, climate change, animal agriculture, environmental justice, and interspecies ethics such as how we view animals and increasingly wish to see them as subjects of their own lives and not objects for literal and symbolic use by humans. Themes that will repeatedly appear in the course include animal studies, climate change, environmental racism, marine justice, and the place of the arts in debates about science and policy.