CORE034 Nature versus culture? Humans and Art in the Anthropocene

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Tereza Dědinová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Zbyněk Fišer, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Zuzana Fonioková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Marcela Křápková Hrdličková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Luisa Nováková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Zuzana Urválková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Tereza Dědinová, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 10:00–11:40 B2.23, except Tue 14. 11.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 150 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 33/150, only registered: 0/150, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/150
Course objectives
Are we part of nature? To what extent? And why do we try so hard to define ourselves against nature?
How firm are the boundaries of culture x nature, man x animal, woman x man dualism?
Does the individual have a chance to influence the causes and effects of the environmental crisis (global warming, the sixth extinction, etc.)?
And how can art contribute to answering these questions?

Current events such as the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the need for problem solving and self-reflection by humanity at the global level. However clearly scientific facts may speak, their acceptance by the public is strongly influenced by cultural context, tradition and cognitive biases. This course will focus on critical reflection on representations of the relationship between culture and nature in art, specifically on current topics whose grasp within public discourse straddles the boundaries of biological determinism and cultural constructivism: issues of the Anthropocene and human identity, gender and other discursively shaped categories, humanity's responsibility for the planet as exemplified by global warming and the environmental crisis. Through analysing works of art, the course will address the relationship between scientific knowledge and its cultural representations with respect to their changeability over time and their continuity with society-wide discourse.

The course will focus on a critical reflection on the relationship between culture and nature, with particular reference to the Anthropocene, global warming and the environmental crisis more generally, feminism and self-identity. Artistic representations of these themes mirror their perception in society and indicate shifts in reflection and processes of re-evaluating cultural stereotypes. Moreover, creative reflection makes the reflected problem accessible to the recipient in a cognitively graspable way (through a story), which complements the informational and rational approach. The individual lectures will use concrete examples of artworks and their reception to problematise the hierarchical concept of the relationship between nature and culture and to discuss the cultural conditioning of the formation of an individual's identity and his/her relationship to his/her surroundings (to nature and the environment in general, to other people, etc.). In doing so, we will draw on current scholarship from the Anthropocene, cultural studies, environmental criticism, literary and film theory, feminism, artistic representations of the animal (critical animal studies) and developmental psychology. In selected lectures, we will complement the issues under investigation with an analysis of cognitive distortions and cultural stereotypes through the lens of cognitive science. While we will predominantly focus on the contemporary situation and its representation in art, diachronic analyses will provide students with a broader understanding of the context (e.g., the development of the relationship between culture and nature, the mediation of knowledge about the world and nature in the early modern period, the origins and development of environmental criticism).
Learning outcomes
For students of the arts and humanities, the course will provide important insights applicable to further study, and for all students, regardless of discipline, it will enable them to gain an awareness of the broader context of globally pressing issues. The knowledge of this non-trivial context will support their ability to seek non-standard solutions in their fields and become aware of the problems of implementing new knowledge and technologies regarding the state of society.
Using works of art as a starting point for analysis will enable students to convey complex issues through examples of familiar material while enriching their interpretations and evaluations of a given work's aesthetic, artistic, cognitive, and philosophical qualities.
Syllabus
  • 2020: the year of change? (Tereza Dědinová)
  • Literature and activism (Tereza Dědinová)
  • Natural order or cultural construct? (Zuzana Fonioková)
  • Woman as nature, man as culture (Zuzana Fonioková)
  • Fine Art, Nature and the Environmental Crisis (Zbyněk Fišer)
  • Perception of nature - and animals - in children's literature (Luisa Nováková)
  • Perception of nature in  romanticism, critical realism and naturalism (Zuzana Urválková)
  • Reflection of global warming in contemporary Czech literature (Tereza Dědinová)
  • The relationship between growing up and nature in  literature  (Marcela Hrdličková)
  • Film adaptations of ecocritical literature using Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road (Petr Bubeníček)
  • Representation of the hyperobject of environmental crisis in contemporary literature (Tereza Dědinová)
Literature
  • CARTMELL, Deborah (ed). A companion to literature, film, and adaptation. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
  • SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON, Matthew, BELLAMY, Brent Ryan. An Ecotopian Lexicon. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
  • SUCHOMEL, Filip. Tektonické obrazy Milana Housera. In Milan Houser. B.n. 2020. ISBN 978-80-214-5748-5, s. 142-146.
  • OZIEWICZ, Marek, ATTEBERY, Brian, DĚDINOVÁ, Tereza. Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
  • BUBENÍČEK, Petr. Alegorické a reálné v románu a filmu Cesta. Bohemica litteraria. Masarykova univerzita, 2018, roč. 21, č. 1, s. 156-168. ISSN 1213-2144. doi:10.5817/BL2018-1-15.
  • NIXON, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,2013.
  • FAFEJTA, Martin. Gender, heteronormativita a genderová práva. Úvod do genderových studií. In: TOPINKA, Daniel a kol. Kultura–media–komunikace II: VYPRÁVĚNÍ – IDENTITA – DIFERENCE. Vybraná témata kulturálních studií. Olomouc: Univ. Palackého v Olomouci, 2
  • DĚDINOVÁ, Tereza, Weronika ŁASZKIEWICZ and Sylwia BOROWSKA-SZERSZUN. Images of the Anthropocene in Speculative Fiction : Narrating the Future. první. New York, London: Lexington Books, 2021, 276 pp. Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy. ISBN 978-1-7936-3663-8. URL info
  • NAVRÁTIL, Ondřej. Řečiště a vlna : české umění a environmentální problematika na počátku 21. století. 1. vydání. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2020, 318 stran. ISBN 9788090706330. info
  • MAŁECKI, Wojciech, Piotr SOROKOWSKI, Bogusław PAWŁOWSKI and Marcin CIEŃSKI. Human minds and animal stories : how narratives make us care about other species. First published. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019, x, 190. ISBN 9780367146047. info
  • CLARK, Timothy. The value of ecocriticism. First published. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, 186 stran. ISBN 9781107095298. info
  • TUREČEK, Dalibor. Sumář : diskurzivita české literatury 19. století. První vydání. Brno: Host, 2018, 146 stran. ISBN 9788075776037. info
  • NAVRÁTIL, Ondřej. Zelené ostrovy. České umění ve věku environmentalismu (Green Islands. Czech art in the Age of Environmentalism 1960-2000). Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Dexon art, 2017, 231 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-8883-2. info
  • TOMÁŠEK, Martin. Krajiny tvořené slovy : k topologii české literatury devatenáctého století. První vydání. Praha: Dokořán, 2016, 375 stran. ISBN 9788074648304. info
  • BUTLER, Judith. Závažná těla : o materialitě a diskursivních mezích "pohlaví". Edited by Josef Fulka. První české vydání. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, nakladatelství Karolinum, 2016, 342 stran. ISBN 9788024633251. info
  • TREXLER, Adam. Anthropocene fictions : the novel in a time of climate change. First published. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, vii, 260. ISBN 9780813936925. info
  • MORTON, Timothy. Hyperobjects : philosophy and ecology after the end of the world. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013, x, 229. ISBN 9780816689224. info
  • FAKTOROVÁ, Veronika. Mezi poznáním a imaginací : podoby obrozenského cestopisu. 1. vydání. Praha: ARSCI, 2012, 366 stran. ISBN 9788074200267. info
  • Česká literatura v perspektivách genderu : IV. kongres světové literárněvědné bohemistiky: Jiná česká literatura (?). Edited by Jan Matonoha. 1. vyd. Praha: Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, 2010, 325 s. ISBN 9788087481011. info
  • KNOTKOVÁ-ČAPKOVÁ, Blanka. Tváří v tvář : gender jako metodologická kategorie literárních analýz. Praha: Gender studies, 2010, 198 s. ISBN 9788086520346. info
  • HEISE, Ursula K. Sense of place and sense of planet : the environmental imagination of the global. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, viii, 250. ISBN 9780195335644. info
  • Empathy and the novel. Edited by Suzanne Keen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, xxix, 242. ISBN 019517576X. info
  • ČEŇKOVÁ, Jana. Vývoj literatury pro mládež a její žánrové struktury : adaptace mýtů, pohádek a pověstí, autorská pohádka, poezie, próza a komiks pro děti a mládež. Vyd. 1. Praha: Portál, 2006, 171 s. ISBN 807367095X. info
  • GARRARD, Greg. Ecocriticism. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2004, xii, 203. ISBN 0415196922. info
  • URBANOVÁ, Svatava. Meandry a metamorfózy dětské literatury. V Olomouci: Votobia, 2003, 363 s. ISBN 80-7198-548-1. info
  • OHLER, Norbert. Náboženské poutě ve středověku a novověku. Vyd. 1. V Praze: Vyšehrad, 2002, 229 s. ISBN 8070215100. info
  • MORRIS, Pam. Literatura a feminismus. Vyd. 1. Brno: Host, 2000, 231 s. ISBN 8086055906. info
  • GUREVIČ, Aron Jakovlevič. Nebe, peklo, svět : cesty k lidové kultuře středověku. Edited by Jaroslav Kolár. Vyd. 1. Jinočany: H & H, 1996, 524 s. ISBN 8085787415. info
  • PETRŮ, Eduard. Vzrušující skutečnost : fakta a fantazie ve středověké a humanistické literatuře. Ostrava: Profil, 1984. info
  • JANÁČKOVÁ, Jaroslava. Český román sklonku devatenáctého století. 1. vyd. Praha: Academia, 1967, 206 s. info
Teaching methods
Lecture, discussion, textual analysis.
Assessment methods
The award of colloquium is conditional on the writing of a reflection and participation in a peer review; the alternative is one's own individual or collective creative output.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2022, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2023, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2023/CORE034