Environmental Sustainability In Literature

A critical approach which began in the late 1980s, ecocriticism (or green studies as it is referred to in the UK) is slowly emerging as an alternative method to reading literary works. In this course, we will be introduced to the nuances in the different approaches to environmental sustainability in literary works so as to arrive at a better understanding of ecocriticism as a literary approach. From Henry David Thoreau?s Walden to J.R.R. Tolkien?s The Hobbit, we can practice ecocriticism as a method of reading and evaluate the relationship between nature and text. More importantly, we can begin to apply this method of reading to contemporary Southeast Asian literature so as to expand the scope of ecocriticism to literature outside of the American or English canon.