Course Catalogue

View Specification Document | Reading List

Do plants communicate? Is chirping a form of language in its own right? What does it mean to listen to the Earth speaking? Ultimately, can human language represent non-verbal forms of interaction? This course poses these questions as a challenge to conventional anthropocentrism. In particular, it looks at how Italian modern and contemporary literature and cinema challenge in diverse and original ways problematic hierarchies of the Anthropocene.

20 x 1 hour seminars over both semesters as scheduled in MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Italian and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus."

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into one of the SMLC Honours programmes, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

None

None

The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Creative Close Reading (e.g. book review/oral presentation/ poster presentation/short video/podcast) (1,000 words / 10 minutes) - 30%

■ Essay (3,000 words) - 70%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the creative close reading and essay, but an extension to the deadline can be offered as reasonable adjustment (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor. 

This course aims to:

■ investigate the ecological complexity of Italian prose, poetry and film that give space in different ways to the voices of animals and plants

■ broaden and enrich an understanding of literature and cinema as human-specific forms of art, inscribing them in the larger context of posthumanism

■ discuss the effectiveness of an ecocritical reading of modern and contemporary Italian authors

■ identify in the polyphonic character of canonical and non-canonical Italian texts an alternative to traditional anthropocentric discourses

■ encourage students to engage in close reading of the strategies through which authors reflect upon and represent dialogues across species

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ question received, simplifying views of agency and communication as strictly human concerns

■ recognise the inclusion of more-than-human languages and signs within artistic discourses that have long been occluded by anthropocentric hierarchies

■ analyse the studied texts in relation to their historical context and relevant ecocritical frameworks

■ undertake independent research, engage with secondary sources, and apply critical tools to the analysis of primary texts

■ develop original and well-researched texts, clearly written and carefully proofread, with an academic purpose in mind but adaptable to different means of communication

■ effectively convey their understanding of the works analysed, through both traditional academic writing and creative (oral, visual, and/or written) analysis of texts