In 2000, atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen identified the late-18th century as the start of the Anthropocene, the epoch marking humans as the dominant geologic force on earth. While we may think of environmental crisis as a relatively new problem in our present age of global climate change, this course asks how those who ushered us into the Anthropocene viewed their shifting relationship to nature. Can we trace the origins of the environmental crisis in 19th-century literature and culture? How do Romantic and Victorian writers grapple with the environmental challenges that confront us now as we teeter on the edge of human-induced apocalypse? What new perspectives do these texts offer on sustainability, environmental justice, and climate futures? We will explore topics such as industrial changes to the rural landscape, the growth of the carbon economy and pollution, ecologies of empire and resource extraction, and visions of climate apocalypse and utopia.
- Enseignant: Hannah Schultz