Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2025 - ENGL 202 D100

The Environmental Imagination (3)

Class Number: 2290

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 12 – Aug 8, 2025: Mon, Wed, 11:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    12 units or one 100-division English course.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores how literature and language imagine the natural world and engage with environmental and ecological crisis. Topics may include ecocriticism: eco-poetics; approaches to the natural world; local, imperial, and Indigenous ecologies. May be further organized by historical period or genre. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Imagining Nature in the Anthropocene

In this course we will explore traditional and contemporary literary works as they shape, and are shaped by, the environmental imagination. The Anthropocene is the name for the unintended consequences of human activity on the planet, and this controversial geologic concept will frame our perspective. The origins of the Anthropocene era are often located in the early nineteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution was gaining steam and the British Empire was rapidly expanding. We will begin by thinking about key concepts, not least of all nature itself, in foundational literature of the modern environmental movement as it responded in a variety of ways to the crises of the industrializing world and called for environmental justice. Though our approach will be historical, it will not be strictly chronological as the selected readings weave together in a temporal braid, so to speak, environmental witnessing past and present. This temporal braiding is designed to help us examine the relationship between local and global through conversations among voices from different times and places and to pose difficult questions about navigating world endings in our present moment. Importantly, while contemplating the challenges, the crises, and the tragedies of our existence as a species on the planet we share with other nonhuman lives and things, we will ask literature to help us imagine how we, nonetheless, in the face of this, might live our precious life fully--with wonder, astonishment, pleasure, joy, and hope for the future.

Grading

  • Participation 10%
  • Discussion Posts 15%
  • In-class Writing Assigment 20%
  • Final Writing Assignment (1,000 words) 30%
  • Final Exam 25%

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

All other readings are available through Canvas.

REQUIRED READING:

Mary Shelley Frankenstein, 1818, 3rd ed. Broadview
ISBN: 9781554811038

Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters. Fifth House Publishers
ISBN: 978-0920079447

G Ballard, The Drowned World, Fourth Estate.
ISBN: 9780007221837

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.