Can Poetry Save the World? Nature, Climate, and the Human in Contemporary Literature 3300-NKC(KZ)-OG

The course explores contemporary ecological poetry and the ways literature represents the relationships between humans, nature, and the environment in the age of climate crisis. It is based on the idea that poetry is not merely an aesthetic commentary on reality, but also a form of attentive engagement with landscapes, animals, the body, and the changing conditions of life on Earth.
During the course, we will read and discuss poems dealing with issues such as environmental catastrophe, biodiversity loss, pollution, human-animal relations, the memory of landscapes, and everyday experiences of living in a world shaped by ecological crisis. Particular attention will be paid to the ways poetic language influences our perception of nature and the connections between the human and the more-than-human world.
An important aspect of the course will also be the inclusion of perspectives beyond Europe. We will examine selected poems by writers from different parts of the world, including Africa and South Asia, showing how environmental change is often intertwined with histories of colonialism, social inequality, and economic violence.
The course has an interdisciplinary character, but no prior knowledge of literary theory, philosophy, or ecology is required. Selected concepts from environmental humanities, ecology, and posthumanism will be introduced gradually and primarily as tools supporting the interpretation of literary texts and contemporary culture.
The course will include works by poets such as Paul Celan, Julia Fiedorczuk, Magdalena Lebda, Forrest Gander, Adam Dickinson, Esther Kinsky, and others.
The aim of the course is to develop participants’ interpretative skills and encourage reflection on how literature can help us better understand contemporary environmental, social, and cultural transformations.

Course coordinators

Paweł Piszczatowski
Jan Skrzypczuk

Mode

Remote learning

Learning outcomes

– the student is familiar with selected trends and phenomena in contemporary Polish and world poetry related to ecology, the environment, and climate crisis,
– the student understands basic concepts connected with environmental humanities and is able to apply them in the interpretation of literary texts,
– the student is able to analyse literary representations of the relationships between humans, nature, and the environment,
– the student understands the connections between literature, culture, and contemporary environmental and social issues,
– the student is able to participate in discussions concerning the role of literature and language in shaping ecological awareness.

Assessment criteria

For the general university subjects offered in the ZIP 2.0 Programme the mandatory method of verifying the assumed learning outcomes is a pre-test and post-test prepared by the lecturer in accordance with the specific nature of the subject, enabling the verification of the increase in knowledge and skills. The lecturer may also specify other additional verification methods and assessment criteria. A sample pre-test and post-test should be attached to the syllabus for the purpose of substantive assessment of classes in the ZIP 2.0 Programme.

Bibliography

– Aloi, Giovanni, Susan McHugh (eds.), Posthumanism in Art and Science. A Reader, New York 2021;
– Bakke, Monika, Bio-transfiguracje. Sztuka i estetyka posthumanizmu, Poznań 2015;
– Bennett, Jane, Vibrant Matter. A Political Ecology of Things, Durham/London 2010;
– Barad, Karen, Posthumanistyczna performatywność: ku zrozumieniu, jak materia zaczyna mieć znaczenie, przeł. Joanna Bednarek, w: Agnieszka Gajewska (red.), Teorie
wywrotowe. Antologia przekładów, Poznań 2012, s. 323–360;
– Braidotti, Rosi, Po człowieku, przeł. Joanna Bednarek, Agnieszka Kowalczyk, Warszawa 2014;
– Domańska, Ewa, Humanistyka ekologiczna, w: „Teksty Drugie” 2013, 1-2, s. 13-32;
– Fiedorczuk, Julia, Gerardo Beltrán, Ekopoetyka. Ekologiczna obrona poezji, Warszawa 2020;
– Fiedorczuk, Julia, Paweł Piszczatowski (ed.), Places that the map can’t contain: Poetics in the Anthropocene, Göttingen 2023;
– Haraway, Donna, Manifest cyborgów, przeł. Sławomir Królak, Ewa Majewska. w: „Przegląd Filozoficzno-Literacki”, 1 (3), 2003, s. 49–87;
– Haraway, Donna, Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Durham/London 2016;
– Morton, Timothy, Dark Ecology. For a Logic of Future Coexistence, New York 2016.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes: