What it's about.

Our course will explore recent literature of disaster, and will attempt to negotiate cultural phenomena surrounding both historical disasters and catastrophes-yet-to-come. The catastrophe is an uncovering of the extent to which we’re exposed, but unlike an apocalypse, it is not a revolution in the world order. “Disaster” derives from the Italian for “an ill-starred event.” The Greek “katastrophē” refers to an overturning. To “cry havoc” was to signal for destruction. This course will explore recent literature of mayhem, focusing on disasters both natural and manmade, past destruction and pending pandemonium. 

Course Goals
 
Students completing a 300-level literature seminar will be able to:

• Apply skills of close reading and analysis to the texts in this course,
• Describe and demonstrate a variety of interpretive strategies for approaching those texts,
• Demonstrate how the literary texts in this course both shape and are shaped by their historical, cultural, and intertextual contexts,
• Conduct independent literary research, using appropriate resources and technologies,
• Write extensively, including a 12-15 page literary research paper appropriately cited in MLA style,
• Create an effective oral presentation of literature / literary research.

Image of US Nuclear Weapons Test at Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean.