Ecocriticism

• To present the impact and effects of ecological perspectives for understanding the society and the environment,
• to discuss the basics for developing ecocritical grounds,
• to introduce key concepts from environmental humanities, posthumanism and material feminisms,
• to encourage interdisciplinary approaches and methods (from science and art, artistic research methods) for addressing selected topics,
• to develop the ability to understand and analyse the links between artistic strategies and theoretical concepts,
• to encourage the development of creative artistic and ecological approaches for dealing with a selected topic (in the framework of the exercises in nature),
• to encourage the development of diverse ecocritical perspectives in thinking and analysing literary and art works,
• to develop the ability for critical and comparative analyses of concepts, articles and works of art.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

Climate change and social transformations bring in front the necessity of approaches that go beyond anthropocentrism and think through contemporary society in an interdisciplinary and intersectional way. One of the fields of integrating the environmental approach into the humanities is ecocriticism, which has its roots in literary studies and, as a critical theory, centers around the relations and relationships between the environment and literature in the broadest sense. Methodologically and theoretically, ecocriticism connects with and draws on developments and insights from feminisms, postcolonial studies, posthumanism, queer studies, environmental humanities, activism, etc. Lectures and seminars will be complemented with practical or field-work – exercises in nature aimed at integrating acquired knowledge and methods within the local context.
The elective course Ecocriticism will offer an overview of key concepts and contemporary theoretical debates from the fields such as environmental humanities, posthumanism and material feminisms, that shed light on the mutual interdependencies of nature and culture, or the material and the immaterial, and foreground the development of ecological perspectives that look at the world and society through relationships and connections. Focusing on the presented concepts, we will then map the links between examples from contemporary literature and art (20th and 21st centuries) and ecology. Combining scientific and artistic approaches, we will then analyse the strategies and approaches that stimulate, enable and produce imaginaries that counter hegemonic capitalist discourses rooted in individualism, private ownership, continuous progress, exploitation, etc.

Knowledge and understanding:
Student:
- understands the basic premises of contemporary ecocritical perspectives,
- learns and understands main ecocritical theories and key concepts,
- understands the basic paradigmatic differences between ecological perspectives and the dominant capitalist discourse,
- understands the strategies and ecological potentials of literary and art works.

Skills:
Student:
- acquires the ability to analytically and critically read some of the more complex theoretical texts and concepts from the field of ecocriticism,
- develops the ability to think about complex literary and artistic works in a broader social (and planetary) context,
- develops the ability to identify and analyse the potentials and strategies of literary and artistic works in creating (alternative) imaginaries,
- develops their own understanding of current ecological and social issues from a local and global context,
- learns to creatively apply studied concepts and approaches to their own interdisciplinary research,
- learns to participate and engage in discussions with clear arguments.

Basic:

• Braidotti, Rosi, Mária Hlavajová. Posthuman Glossary. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
• Čeh Steger, Jožica. »Ekologizacija literarne vede in ekokritika«. Slavistična revija 60.2 (2012): 199-212. E-version
• Gaard, Greta. “New Directions for Ecofeminism: Toward a More Feminist Ecocriticism.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 17.4 (2010): 643–65. E-version
• Loveless, Natalie. How to Make Art at the End of the World. A Manifesto for Research-Creation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019. Catalogue
• Peresin Meden, Nikita, Kristina Pranjić, Peter Purg. “Taming the Forest: Embracing the Complexity of Art-Sci Research through Microhistory, Bioeconomics and Intermedia Art”. Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research (2024). https://doi.org/10.1386/tear_00122_1
• Pranjić, Kristina, Peter Purg. “Spreminjanje imaginarija napredka in rasti v avantgardnih in intermedijskih umetniških praksah.” Primerjalna književnost 46.3 (2023) E-version
• Pranjić, Kristina. “Zvezdna navigacija pri Homerju in svetlikanje zvezd v poeziji Gregorja Strniše”. V: Obdobja 40. Slovenska poezija. Ljubljana: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, 2021. 607–613. E-version
• K obvezni literaturi se vsako študijsko leto določijo tudi članki in literarna dela za obravnavane teme na predavanjih in delo v seminarju.

Additional:

• Buell, Lawrence. The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
• Glotfelty, Cheryll, Harold Fromm (ur.). The Ecocriticism Reader. Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
• Patrizio, Andrew. The Ecological Eye Assembling an Ecocritical Art History. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019.

• Regular oral presentations of texts and art works and moderating the discussions 30 %,
• group work in preparing and organizing a short exercise in nature 30 %,
• final work in any medium 40 %.

Assoc. prof. dr. Kristina Pranjić graduated in comparative literature, and Russian language and literature at the University of Ljubljana. She defended her doctoral thesis on the concept of objectlessness and non-representational poetry and visual art in symbolism and the avant-garde at the same institution. From 2019 to 2021 she led the research project Yugoslav Avantgardes and Metropolitan Dada (1916–1927): A Multidirectional and Transnational Genealogy, financed by the Slovenian Research Agency. She is employed as an associate professor at the Research Centre for Humanities and the School of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica.

Selected articles:

1. GERMEK, Magdalena, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Percepcija nadrealizma in potencial njegove ekoepistemologije. Vizualna pismenost. Teoretsko raziskovanje, razumevanje, ustvarjanje in interpretacija sodobnosti. Ljubljana: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, 2024, 136–149.
2. PRANJIĆ, Kristina, PURG, Peter. Spreminjanje imaginarija napredka in rasti v avantgardnih in intermedijskih umetniških praksah. Primerjalna književnost 46.3 (2023), 21–39.
3. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Change must come: Yugoslav avant-gardes and metropolitan Dada. In: BRU, Sascha (ed.). Crisis: the avant-garde and modernism in critical modes. European avant-garde and modernism studies, vol. 7. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2022, 297–312.
4. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Zenitistični koncept barbarogenija kot kritika zahodnoevropske kulture = Zenithist Concept of a Barbarogenius as a Critique of the Western European Culture. Primerjalna književnost. 43.3 (2020), 139–157.
5. Pranjić, Kristina. Zvezdna navigacija pri Homerju in svetlikanje zvezd v poeziji Gregorja Strniše. Obdobja 40. Slovenska poezija. Ljubljana: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, 2021, 607–613.