FREN 325 - Sustainability in Francophone Literature and Culture 3 s.h.

The breakdown of ecosystems around the world in the early twenty-first century plunges human civilization into a crisis that urgently prompts us to re-evaluate our own cultural resources in meeting the global challenge of sustainability. This course explores French and Francophone literatures and cultures through the lenses of sustainability, ecocriticism, and environmental activism. Beginning with attitudes and perceptions of the natural world expressed in literature, the course branches out to consider the interconnected questions of culture, society, and politics viewed from the broad, holistic perspective of sustainability. This course critically examines the connections between abstract ideas about the natural environment and concrete practices that either sustain or fail to sustain it. While providing students with critical tools for thinking and writing broadly about sustainability and culture, individual instructors may teach different iterations of this course that focus on particular aspects of these larger issues, and which zoom in on specific histories and contours of this problematic. Issues examined may include colonialism and war; racism, immigration, and incarceration; sustainable communities; the metaphorical exploitation of nature in light of policy and practice; and activism, fair trade, and eco-tourism as three possible solutions to these challenges. Taught in English. A-E Only. Offered irregularly.
LA
Prerequisite(s): COMP 100.