LT/ES 321 - 21st Century Nature Writing: Focusing on the Local and the Universal in the Black Forest

This course focuses on 21st-century nature writing, particularly on the variety of approaches through which contemporary literature represents and responds to nature in the era of the climate crisis. Its purpose is to demonstrate literature as a point of connection and understanding between humanity and nature, which fosters compassion for the natural environment and, ultimately an environmen-tally aware lifestyle. This is done by showing contemporary examples of reciprocal relationships between literature and politics, par-ticularly between literature and art in a nature writing context, and by asking students to engage with the natural environment of the Black Forest through their own creative nature writing.