• Course Number: ENGL 165AE
  • Prerequisites:

    Check on GOLD.

  • Advisory Enrollment Information:

    May be repeated for credit providing letter designations are different.

  • Catalog Course Entry: ENGL 165AA-ZZ
  • Quarter: Spring 2021

We live in an era, the Anthropocene, that is increasingly becoming defined by catastrophic climate change. We have witnessed the rise of the super-storms as well as devastating forest fires. Large numbers of animal species have been pushed to the brink of extinction, and many others have already disappeared. This course proposes to examine how the contemporary graphic novel (or comic books) has engaged with the crucial topics of animality and ecology and the posthuman. The first half of our class will predominantly focus on the way in which the graphic novel takes up urgent issues pertaining to the environment. We will examine graphic accounts of fire and flood as well as issues of mineral extraction and environmental justice. The second part of our course takes up philosophical questions brought to the fore by contemporary animal studies. Here we will look into human-animal relationships in their varied registers including a quirky cat and its intimate relationship with a rabbi as well as boy who transmogrifies into a dog in the aftermath of a genocide. The course concludes with an examination of the posthuman, technology, and animal life. We shall try to think through the significance of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic with regard to the future of animality, ecology, and humanity.

Instructor:

  • Schedule & Location
  • Details Not Available