Crisis Writing

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. 1. ​Demonstrate, in both creative and evaluative writing, a wide-ranging awareness of the thematic and structural possibilities of specific genres.
2. 2. Demonstrate, in both creative and evaluative writing, an increased command of a variety of techniques associated with a range of writing for specific purposes.
3. 3. Reflect and comment upon in critical prose on their own creative practice.
4. 4. Demonstrate, by the revision of work previously discussed in workshops, an ability to improve their writing in response to criticism​

Crisis Writing explores a variety of approaches to writing about climate change including speculative fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, song and conceptual writing. Each two-hour session will be divided into a seminar and a workshop. Literary examples will be discussed in relation to the latest climate science and theoretical concepts drawn from ecocriticism and ecological philosophy. There will also be a particular emphasis on the relationship between writing and political action. The module involves keeping a daily diary/blog and includes two field trips. It forms part of the core provision for the ECW Climate Crisis Stream. However, the module will also be of interest to students following other E&CW schemes who have previously taken modules such as Literature and the Sea, Telling True Stories and Writing Selves.

session 1: Introduction / Environmental Diary

The first half of the seminar will introduce students to the content and aims of the module. The second half will focus on the writing of an environmental diary.



Session 2: Ecopoetry

This seminar will explore ecopoetry and what that might mean to write from a bio- or ecocentric perspective



Session 3: Activism and Conceptual Writing

Students will explore the interface between activism and writing. The seminar will discuss and experiment with different ways in which political action in the world can shape writing and vice versa.



session 4: Natural Beauty/Natural Spectacle (Field Trip 1)

Students will discuss how writing can be used to celebrate the natural world and highlight its aesthetic and biophilic value. They will also be encouraged, however, to reflect on the idea of nature tourism and the monetising of the natural world. Creative pieces will be written in response to a field trip.



Session 5: Green Songs

Students will study a range of folk and pop protest songs from the 1960s to the present that engage with environmental concerns.



Session 6: Ecological Travelogue

Students will be introduced to how the literary form of the travelogue can be employed to investigate the climate crisis, using a combination of first person narrative, interviews, and scientific data.



Session 7: Essay as Intervention

Students will examine how the journalistic or literary essay can be used to interrogate contemporary climate change concerns, using a combination of personal reflection, political argument and cultural criticism.



Session 8: Writing Wales and Fossil Fuel (Field Trip 2)

Students will consider the history of coal mining in Wales and discuss the role played by fossil fuels in the current climate crisis. Creative pieces will be written in response to a field trip.



Session 9: Species Extinction and Literary Reanimation

In this seminar, students will research a recently extinct species and write about it.



Session 10: Writing Ecotopias

This seminar explores the writing of eco-utopias or ecotopias

(a term coined by the novelist Ernest Callenbach). Looking at literary examples alongside a range of relevant philosophical ideas.

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 6