Advanced seminar: Pollution and Toxicity in US-American Fiction of the Anthropocene - Details

Advanced seminar: Pollution and Toxicity in US-American Fiction of the Anthropocene - Details

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General information

Course name Advanced seminar: Pollution and Toxicity in US-American Fiction of the Anthropocene
Subtitle (Block seminar with excursion to Munich, July 17 and 18, 2024)
Course number 024 200 0007
Semester SS 2024
Current number of participants 11
maximum number of participants 14
Home institute Amerikanistik
Courses type Advanced seminar in category Teaching
First date Wednesday, 17.04.2024 14:00 - 15:30, Room: (D, 2006)
Participants Hinweis für Studierende der Umweltethik: In diesem Blockseminar muss ein Modulabschluss durch Abgabe einer Seminar- bzw. Hausarbeit erfolgen. Die bloße Teilnahme gegen Unterschrift auf dem Formblatt ist nicht möglich.
Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt / hat Präsenz-Bestandteile Yes
Hauptunterrichtssprache englisch

Rooms and times

(D, 2006)
Wednesday: 14:00 - 15:30, weekly (3x)
(D, 5031)
Wednesday, 08.05.2024 14:00 - 15:30
No room preference
Wednesday, 17.07.2024 09:00 - 21:00
Thursday, 18.07.2024 09:00 - 16:00

Module assignments

Comment/Description

IMPORTANT: This class differs from a "regular" Hauptseminar. It is part of a regional seminar of the BAA (Bayrische Amerika-Akademie) and will be taught simultaneously at three Bavarian universitites: Augsburg, Erlangen-Nürnberg and Munich.

The class in Augsburg will take place approximately every 4 weeks, starting April 17, 2024 (also on May 8, June 12, and July 10, 2024).
In these regular meetings, we will prepare for a student workshop in Munich, which will take place July 17th and 18th, and which will bring together all three student groups. This excursion is funded by the BAA (hotel and food), transport should be self-arranged (semester ticket).

If you enroll in this class, please make sure that

1) you are availble for all four sessions in Augsbug and the workshop in Munich on July 17th and 18th
2) are open towards this somewhat different format and are curious to engage in discussions with students from other universities
3) are interested in the topic of the class and the workshop:

Toxicity and pollution – in various manifestations – have a long history in North American fic-tion. Ideas and fears of pollution especially have long merged moral and environmental con-cerns, and have, moreover, mirrored larger contemporary political and cultural anxieties. In the second half of the 19th century, in the contexts of rapid industrialization and the increasing use of fossil fuels, but also of the professionalization of medical, biological, and chemical knowledge, the themes of toxicity and pollution gained further traction as concrete dangers to environment and humans alike. While some dangers, like coal smog or polluted rivers, were easily apparent, others wrought their damage undetected.
When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, she drew Americans’ attention sharply to the vast and deadly consequences of pesticides. But it was especially her decision to illustrate the often “unseen and invisible” danger of pollution via narrative that left a lasting impression on readers.
In the 21st century, oil spills, micro-plastics, and radioactive waste are only a few of the examples that demonstrate the devastating effects of anthropogenic (human-made) toxicity and pollution on the planet. In terms of portraying risks, imagining consequences, and conjur-ing alterative ways of living, “fictional narratives,” according to Sylvia Mayer, make a “unique and indispensable” contribution to “current environmental risk discourses” (“World Risk Socie-ty” 495).
In this seminar and the student workshop in Munich, we will focus particularly on North American narratives that negotiate the anxieties and fears attached to pollution and that imagine the consequences of living on a planet marked (and sometimes all but destroyed) by toxicity. While examining a variety of liter-ary and pop-cultural examples, we will investigate (non-)human responsibilities in connection with pollution and toxicity, always keeping in mind debates surrounding the notion of the Anthropocene in the 21st century.

Feel free to e-mail me before enrolling: ina.batzke@uni-a.de

Admission settings

The course is part of admission "ALW/ELW/NELK: Vertiefungsmodul BA: HS".
Studierende der Anglistik/Amerikanistik und des Faches Englisch können sich bereits während der vorgezogenen Anmeldephase zur Sicherstellung des Studienfortschritts für die Aufbau- und Vertiefungsmodule anmelden. Hierzu wird ein gewisses Kontingent der Kursplätze im Zeitraum vom 19.02.2024 bis 28.02.2024 für die Anmeldung geöffnet. Die Verteilung der Plätze erfolgt am 01.03.2024. Bitte beachten Sie, dass in dieser Anmeldephase Studierende in höheren Fachsemestern bei der Verteilung der Plätze priorisiert werden.
Die allgemeine Anmeldephase beginnt am 04.03.2024 und endet am 08.04.2024.
The following rules apply for the admission:
  • This setting is active from 04.03.2024 08:00 to 08.04.2024 12:00.
    Enrolment is allowed for up to 2 courses of the admission set.
  • A defined number of seats will be assigned to these courses.
    The seats in the affected courses have been assigned at 10.04.2024 on 12:00. Additional seats may be available via a wait list.
  • The enrolment is possible from 04.03.2024, 08:00 to 08.04.2024, 12:00.
Assignment of courses: