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Semester 2

Water and World Literature (ENLI10399)

Course Website

https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours

Subject

English Literature

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 4 English Literature courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses, and we do not consider civilisation & other interdisciplinary courses, freshman seminars, writing/composition courses or film/cinema/media courses; visiting students who have taken multiple courses in literature in other languages, should have passed at least two courses in English Literature as well. **Please note that this course may incur additional costs to purchase core texts** **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

Taking the world ocean as its organising principle, this course will allow students to engage with a range of disparate spaces and texts that are connected through the material, historical, economic and cultural flows of the ocean. By introducing students to contemporary theories from world literature studies and critical ocean studies the course will prompt students to explore alternative models of organising literary studies, ones that seek to contextualise literary works within a global framework as opposed to restrictions based upon period, genre or nationality. If world literature is understood as the literature of the capitalist world-system, this course prompts students to consider the extent to which the ocean registers the consequences of capitalist modernity and its attendant crises. The module will introduce students to a range of textual forms (including experimental poetry, the historical novel, magical realism, weird fiction and sci-fi) from across the globe (including the Caribbean, India, Nigeria, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania) and will map the ways in which different genres and geographies inscribe the historical, social, and ecological consequences of continuing imperialism and globalisation. The course will ask a series of key questions regarding the ways in which world literature registers the seas and oceans as mediums of exchange, encounter, and expropriation, and will further enable students to examine the critical intersections between world literature, postcolonial, and ecocritical perspectives. Of concern for this module will be how the emergent interdisciplinary area of the Blue Humanities recognises the ocean as not merely a backdrop to human action, but positions the ocean as an active force in shaping human histories, environments, and cultures.

Course Description

While the ocean often emerges at the margins of literary scholarship, its vast body is central to the production of food, energy, communication andtransport links that underpin our daily lives. This course invites students to reorient the traditionally terrestrial focus of environmental literary discourseand to actively consider the role of the ocean in facilitating, shaping, and disrupting the unfolding of capitalist modernity. This course will further allowstudents to investigate the ways in which world literary texts register the unevenness and inequalities of the world system, and will prompt them tocomparatively consider the ways in which such texts respond to conditions of social and environmental injustice that are inflected and complicated byfactors including race, gender and class.The ability to read literary and theoretical writing independently and with precision and confidence that students have gained from their prior study ofEnglish Literature will be essential for the successful completion of this course. In addition to set literary texts, the course will begin with two introductoryweeks of theory-based discussion which will allow students to develop confidence with new critical terminologies, methodologies, and concepts that willbe integral to the successful completion of the course. On the basis of independent preparatory reading, seminars will be used to discuss the literary,philosophical, social, cultural, environmental and political implications of world ocean literatures. In addition to individual reading, students will berequired to meet in advance of seminars in autonomous learning groups (ALGs) to produce material that will be presented to class in a variety offormats (including: written reports, verbal presentations, poster presentations and other activities). Active preparation for and participation in classdiscussion is required, and will be assessed as part of the student's overall performance.The structure of the course is broadly comparative in nature and asks students to explore the similarities and differences evident in a range of culturalforms spanning the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The course will enable students to reach an informed understanding of the relationshipbetween postcolonial, ecocritical, and oceanic approaches to literature and will provide students with the theoretical and methodological skills that willenable them to critically engage with this rich field of study, and to develop the analytical skills and knowledge that will be assessed in their essays. Thecourse is assessed by two essays, one to be completed by Week 9 of the course and one to be written during the exam period, and an assessment ofstudents' participation in class and their autonomous learning groups. Written feedback will be provided on each element of assessment, and further oralfollow-up feedback from the tutor will be available for anyone who would like it.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on an English Literature exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one 3rd year English Literature course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the January Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed, and students will not be permitted to enrol in three 3rd year English Literature courses in the same semester at any time. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

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