CMPL 310 - Visions of the Nuclear Future

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
This course examines creative works that depict disrupted ecologies in blasted landscapes. We will look closely at speculative fiction from Japan–an island nation with a history of nuclear disaster–but also beyond, asking how stories that engage the atomic bombings of WWII, Chernobyl, and Fukushima resonate in the context of the climate crisis, global pandemic, and other catastrophes. Topics include relations between human and non-human, interspecies survival, plant ontologies, and the end of the Anthropocene. In addition to literature and visual media, we will read ecocritical and new materialist theories to explore comparative approaches to the theory, literature, and environment.