ENG 136 - Post-Apocalyptic Fiction and the Environment

This course considers the rise of the post-apocalyptic narrative in English within the ongoing context of environmental disaster and climate change. We will begin in the 1970s with works such as Soylent Green and Dawn of the Dead that link consumptive capitalism to the downfall of the planet. We then move to consider a range of contemporary post-apocalyptic genres (the zombie story, the contagion narrative, eco-horror) that respond to real-life environmental catastrophes. We will explore a variety of issues in this speculative landscape-from race and racialization, gender and reproductive futurity, contact and contagion, empire and displacement, and economic precarity-and consider how the post-apocalyptic narrative form is uniquely suited to engaging these themes. For undergraduate English Majors, this course satisfies the Historical Sequence (B2) requirement.

Course Designation/Attribute: DI

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

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