Time Schedule:
Richard Henry Watts
FRENCH 499
Seattle Campus
Topics to meet specific needs. Prerequisite: FRENCH 303; either FRENCH 304, FRENCH 305, FRENCH 306, or FRENCH 307.
Class description
We will interpret a variety of texts (literary, cinematic, commercial, etc.) that address the water crisis with a view to understanding how water’s cultural meaning has changed as we have become more conscious of risks in supply (posed by pollution and natural/man-made scarcity) and as access to it is increasingly mediated (as a result of its privatization, commodification, etc.). While no ten-week course could pretend to give a comprehensive and global view of problem as complex as our relation to water, we will study novels, essays, films and other cultural documents from Western Europe, Africa, the Maghreb, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and North and Latin America with a view to understanding the differential distribution of the water crisis and the variety of aesthetic responses to it.
Student learning goals
To introduce you to the objects and methods of the environmental humanities, including “ecocriticism.”
To help you understand the symbolic dimension of the water crisis and how it relates to our response to material problems.
To provide you with the tools to articulate persuasive arguments regarding the works and the wider issues under consideration.
General method of instruction
Lectures/discussions
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Essays/group projects/exams
