GERM 326 - Germany and the Environmental Imagination

Germany is widely recognized as a global leader in environmental policy and green technology. To what extent does Germany’s role as a pioneer in the global environmental movement have its roots in German culture? Building on interdisciplinary scholarship in the growing field of environmental humanities, this course offers an introduction to environmental thought in German literature, culture, and the arts from the 18th-century to the present. The goal of the course is to develop an ecocritical model of reading, focusing on the way literature and other artworks stage the encounter between people and nature in a range of different genres: fairy tales, prose, poetry, landscape painting, and film. Tracing the emergence of the German environmental imagination in key texts from German literature, art, and film, the course also examines the emergence of the modern environmental movement in Germany, and explores how literature and the arts contribute to contemporary debates about environmental justice, species extinction, and sustainability. Course taught in English with an optional FLAC section in German.

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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