Overview

This module will explore creative responses to wilderness, the non-human and environmental challenges, drawing on a range of ecological writings including creative non-fiction, novels and poetry. Literary relationships with landscape and the non-human world will be explored in relation to issues of race, gender and global justice as well as the context of climate crisis and emerging understandings of wellbeing. Building on students' individual experience in creative writing, this module will allow them to develop work around specific ecological themes, while gaining insight into contemporary ecocriticism. Through seminars and workshops they will experiment with different approaches to writing about place, environment and the non-human world. There will be opportunities to discover some of the ecological research taking place in Bangor University, and to draw on it creatively. The module will include writing outdoors, making the most of Bangor's unique location.

Topics studied may include:

Ecopoetics

New Nature Writing

Critical Terms and Turns: Posthuman, Anthropocene, Plantationocene

More-than-human perspectives

Writing (with) Sound

Writing the Micro

Geological writing

Writing with Science

Assessment Strategy

-threshold -D- to D+ (40-49%) A 3rd class candidate’s work will show many of the following features:Limited engagement with ideas.Link between themes and form not always clear.Limited sense of formal conventions. Inconsistent with regard to linguistic technicalities.Limited awareness of redrafting and editing process. -good -B- to B+ (60-69%)A 2(i) candidate’s work will show many of the following qualities:Demonstration of a degree of vitality and originality.Very good understanding of generic conventions; sound use of structures and forms.Resourceful use of language.Sound understanding of the creative process and thoughtful control of decisions made in writing. -excellent -A- to A* (70%+) Typically, the work of a first class candidate will show many of the following qualities:Excellent levels of originality, vision and depth; striking and thorough engagement with ideas.Excellent understanding and control of form.Impressive linguistic control and/or innovation.Sophisticated understanding of the creative process and assured control of decisions made in writing. -another level-C- to C+ (50-59%) A 2(ii) candidate’s work will show many of the following qualities:Some attempt at serious exploration of ideas.Some link between themes and form. Good attempt to engage with form, but this may not be entirely sustained.Use of language technically proficient, but not always focused.Some awareness of the creative process and of decisions made in writing.

Learning Outcomes

• Analyse a range of contemporary nature writing in the context of a writerly practice.

• Explore the ways in which writers respond to ecological ideas and issues, including consideration of gender, race and global justice.

• Generate, develop and critically reflect upon original creative work in response to environmental and ecological themes.

• Synthesise creative, critical and theoretical approaches to ecological challenges.