Introduction to the Anthropocene: Climate Change and Its Consequences

elective courses

This course offers a broad survey on the Anthropocene as one of the major challenges of our time. We will analyze the Anthropocene both as a new geological epoch and as a cultural construct. With a variety of assigned texts (the canonical as well as the recent ones), we will contextualize the problem of rapid climate change, with its consequences for the biosphere and the (American) culture.

This course offers a broad survey on the Anthropocene as one of the major challenges of our time. We will analyze the Anthropocene both as a new geological epoch and as a cultural construct. With a variety of assigned texts (the canonical as well as the recent ones), we will contextualize the problem of rapid climate change, with its consequences for the biosphere and the (American) culture.

Moreover, the course will examine alternate terms for the discussed era (e.g., Chthulucene, Capitalocene), exploring certain ideas and phenomena that significantly contributed to the human-induced changes to the natural environment (e.g., petrol culture, nature-culture dichotomy). To provide students with comprehensive knowledge in the field and to help them find an integrated approach to the discussed problem, we will read and analyze texts by authors such as: Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Nicholas Mirzoeff, or Mark Bould.

Autin, Whitney J. “Multiple Dichotomies of the Anthropocene.” Anthropocene Review 3, no. 3 (2016): 218–30.

Bould, Mark. The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture. New York: Verso, 2021.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “The Climate of History: Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry 35, no. 2 (Winter 2009): 197–222.

Emmelhainz, Irmgard. “Conditions of Visuality Under the Anthropocene and Images of the Anthropocene to Come.” e-flux Journal, March 2015. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/63/60882/conditions-of-visuality-under-the-anthropocene-and-images-of-the-anthropocene-to-come/.

Latour, Bruno. Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017.

LeMenager, Stephanie. Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Lewis, Simon L., and Mark A. Maslin. “Defining the Anthropocene.” Nature 519, no. 7542 (March 2015): 171–80.

---. The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.

McDuff, Phil. “Ending Climate Change Requires the End of Capitalism. Have We Got the Stomach for It?” The Guardian, March 18, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/18/ending- climate-change-end-capitalism.

Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “Visualizing the Anthropocene.” Public Culture 26, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 213–32.

Morton, Timothy. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.

Rich, Nathaniel. “Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change.” New York Times Magazine, August 1, 2018. https:// www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate- change-losing-earth.html.

Steffen, Will, Jacques Grinevald, Paul Crutzen, and John McNeill. “The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 369 (2011): 842–67.

KNOWLEDGE

Upon completing this course, a student:

– is aware of the (cultural) impacts of climate change

– knows and applies methods of analyzing cultural phenomena stemming from climate change

– knows key texts on the Anthropocene

SKILLS

Upon completing this course, a student:

– is able to analyze climate change-induced sociocultural phenomena

– is able to write an outline of a research paper (with arguments) s

– is able to write a short research paper on a selected theoretical text and US American sociocultural phenomena

SOCIAL COMPETENCES

Upon completing this course, a student:

– understands the crucial role of basic knowledge of climate change in comprehending social and cultural changes (and phenomena) in the US

– actively participates in group work and takes part in discussions

– uses the knowledge gained during the course for further studies on the American culture

Attendance and active participation in class discussions—30%

Project—30%

End-of-term paper (2,000-word research paper plus a bibliography sheet)—40%

Grading scale:

90–100% — 5

76–89% — 4

60–75% — 3