This interdisciplinary seminar examines the relationship between literature and the environment in an East Asian and global context. We will explore key questions and approaches in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities as they relate to ecological change in China, Japan, and Korea. How does literature make environmental crises, their effects on sentient beings, and the earth itself more visible? In what ways does storytelling give voice to changing relationships between humans and the more-than-human world? We will consider the role that Asia, which houses over half of the world's population, has to play in our current age of mass extinction often called the Anthropocene. We will examine how poets, novelists, filmmakers, artists, nonfiction writers, and critics in East Asia have responded creatively to environmental changes. Throughout our course, we will examine topics such as environmental activism through the arts ecocinema ecofeminism the power of science fiction to reveal environmental degradation and the dangers of “ecoambiguity” and “resignation.” Another key priority in this course is to consider the potential of classical East Asian philosophical and ethical traditions – such as in particular Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism – to serve as resources for imagining new conceptualizations of human subjectivity which may lead to less exploitation of the environment in the future. The seminar recognizes and centers the significant conceptual contributions Indigenous thinkers and perspectives have contributed to ecocriticism, a field which has historically given disproportionate attention to Western literatures and theoretical perspectives. We will also engage with Indigenous theories and stories from Asia to inform our discussions of place-making and cultural traditions as they have transformed in response to displacement, urbanization, migration, and changing environments.

Please contact instructor for course description.

This class will trace genealogies of print production, circulation, and readership in the long nineteenth century. How did editors, writers, and readers utilize print to make meaning of the world around them? How did print serve to instantiate or imagine kinscapes of belonging and community that stretch across time and expansive geographies? The settler state utilized print to establish structures of belonging through the circulation of legal documents like bills of sale, allotment records, marriage announcements, or Congressional proceedings. It became the reified form of record keeping—an archive with enormous political power. However, print was also a useful tool for organized resistance and the disruption of emerging taxonomies, including those of race, gender, and citizenship. The reference to “America” in the course title is meant to trouble the United States as the de facto geography of print. Instead, we will consider how Black, Indigenous, women, of-color, and working-class thinkers utilized print to build communities outside or alongside the settler nation-state. Primary source readings may include the work of John Marrant, Mary Jemisin, David Walker, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Gertrude Bonin (Zitkala-Sa), S. Alice Callahan, Edith Maude Eaton (Sui Sin Far), or Charles Chesnutt. We will pair primary source readings with selected emerging and innovative scholarship in nineteenth-century literary and print culture studies.

This seminar will explore the role of the archive in literature and literary scholarship through a variety of approaches, including that of critical archive studies, memory studies and the exploration of archives as a source for creative work. Central to our discussions will be a case study concerning the 2022 archival “discovery” of new documents about the “raptus” of Cecily Champaigne by medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer, sometimes called the “father of English poetry.”  The conversations and controversy surrounding this recent revelation will serve as an opportunity to examine the role of the archive in shaping literary history and literary historical methodologies. While informed by a range of theoretical perspectives, the course will also have a strong focus on praxis. We will coordinate with UCSD Special Collections to learn of opportunities for archival work on our campus, in the UC system, our local area and beyond. The course will also draw on the expertise of Literature faculty who will share what they have learned from their own encounters with the archives. Course assignments will include practical preparation for utilizing archives for scholarly and creative work and for securing funding to visit archives.

LTEN 272

Este seminario aborda la articulación y el devenir de los feminismos latinoamericanos desde el siglo XIX hasta la actualidad, en relación con las problemáticas geopolíticas e histórico-culturales propias de la región. Se pondrá especial atención a las trayectorias teóricas e intelectuales que las feministas y las disidencias sexuales (comunidad cuir/queer) han elaborado como potencia e imaginación política descolonizadora en Brasil, Chile, Argentina, Perú y Bolivia.

Se trabajará con una constelación de textualidades escritas y audiovisuales preferentemente en español y portugués, no obstante, de ser posible, se facilitará la versión o alternativa en inglés.

Lxs estudiantes tendrán la oportunidad de realizar presentaciones orales y ensayos académicos en español, portugués y/o inglés. 

Please contact instructor for course description.