This course explores two key questions: firstly, how are literature and culture informed by the energy sources that power them, from oil to gas to solar? Secondly, how do contemporary genres, from Science Fiction to Fantasy to Utopianism to the Weird, shape the way we understand energy and our relationship to it, both in the present and the future? The course ranges from the vast engines of a Death Star to the solar utopias of activism to gain a sense of how we think energy, and how it shapes us.

5x1hr lectures; 10x90min seminars over ten weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in English Literature and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

ENGLIT5114

None

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Mid-term essay (1500 words) - 30% 

■ Final essay (3500 words) - 60% 

■ Seminar contribution - 10% 

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

■ There are no alternatives to the Mid-term essay (1500 words), but flexible deadline can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ There are no alternatives to the Final essay (3500 words), but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ Written self-evaluation reflecting on seminar contribution or Written response to seminar material in advance or after seminar as alternative to seminar contribution.

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

This course aims to:

■ Explore the ways in which energy shapes culture; 

■ Engage with cultural imaginations of energy across various media;

■ Develop an understanding of how the codes of different genres, including Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia, shape the stories they tell;

■ Examine how these popular genres are drawn upon to construct real-world narratives.

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

■ Write in a critical and informed way about popular genres (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Utopia, Weird) and how they provide different narrative resources for imagining alternative ways of living with energy;

■ Conduct research in the fields of popular genre and the Energy Humanities;

■ Relate contemporary future speculations to their appropriate generic and energetic contexts; 

■ Reflect critically on the contemporary energy crisis and energy transition from a knowledgeable and critical perspective;

■ Communicate responses to the material studied on the course both orally and in written form through coherent and sustained argument.

■ Demonstrate resilience and time management through effectively planning, undertaking and submitting coursework.

■ Deal with change and new challenges by applying their disciplinary skills and knowledge to previously unfamiliar research areas and questions.