Ecolinguistics Language The Environment

AY2021/2022 Semester 2

In this course, we will look at how language is used to construct taken-for-granted stories, metaphors and ideologies that perpetuate environmentally harmful modes of human existence. We'll take an eco-critical perspective and develop an analytical toolkit that we'll apply to various discourses, including those referred to as `environmentalist'. We will analyze a wide range of texts (pieces of journalistic, academic and policy writing, excerpts from textbooks, advertisements, mission statements and `about us' sections of various companies and corporations, examples of `green initiatives' and environmentalist campaigning, blogs, literary narratives and poetry), and unpack the main tropes, frames and strategies through which environmentally hazardous discourses become normalized. We will also look for the alternatives that promote ecological harmony. Our major topics include but are not limited to: development, growth, progress, climate change, animal rights, nature-as-resource, individualism, consumerism, culturally constructed images of the ideal body and food consumption. The course will provide a stimulating environment for you to enhance your critical thinking skills and acquire concepts that will serve you well in many prospective careers, especially in industries with environmental and sustainability concerns. And those are many.