Politics, Aesthetics, Critical Ecology: Artworks and the Environment

Climate change and environmental crises have given rise to critique and reflection. This class will bring together issues of aesthetics, politics, and artworks around environmental issues. The introductory phase will involve students with key issues in ecocritical literature by reading Timothy Clark's Literature and the Environment. Moving on to the critical ecology of the Frankfurt School, the class will study the critiques of anthropocentrism, the Enlightenment, and capitalist production as the source for domination over nature and over other humans. We will explore Marxist critiques of capitalist production and alienation in John Foster and Brett Clark's writings about metabolic rifts, toxic colonialism, and alienation of labor and nature. A look at ecological thoughts in the ancient Chinese tradition will be enriched by an inquiry into contemporary Chinese eco-critical literature and film, including Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide and Jia Zhangke's Still Life. Chinese is not required. PhD students are required to write a term paper of 20-25 pages. MA and undergraduate students will write short essays in response to the questions from readings and discussion.