Ines Barner: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2023 |
| Name | Dr. Ines Barner |
| Address | Professur für Wissenschaftsforsch. ETH Zürich, RZ G 3.2 Clausiusstrasse 59 8092 Zürich SWITZERLAND |
| ines.barner@wiss.gess.ethz.ch | |
| Department | Humanities, Social and Political Sciences |
| Relationship | Lecturer |
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| 851-0438-00L | Environment in Transition. Literature between Ecological Crisis and Utopia  | 3 credits | 2S | I. Barner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Something is wrong with the planet, and it has to do with us humans. This insight challenges the sciences, the arts, politics: How can the crises be thought and represented, how can futures be imagined? With a focus on literature (cli-fi, science fiction, nature writing), the course develops a historical-critical perspective on the present and history of the ecological crisis. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Participants will develop an understanding of the history and present of literature in the Anthropocene and its relationship to science, politics, technology, economics, and society. To this end, we combine textual analyses with perspectives from the history of knowledge. Students apply this knowledge by learning to develop their own points of view and to contribute them to discussions, papers, and essays. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The guiding question is: What do the transitions mean for the production of literature and knowledge? And how does our conception of an environment in transition affect our readings? Another thread leading through the seminar is the question of the possibilities and limits of (popular) scientific and artistic methods. How are futures imagined, in science, in literature? We read and discuss selected research literature (literary and science studies) together with fiction and non-fiction from the 20th and 21st century (e.g. Dorothee Elmiger, Amitav Gosh, Frank Herbert, Franz Hohler, Max Frisch, Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia E. Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Anna Tsing). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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