Reading Waste, 5 cr

This course investigates the meanings of waste through literary and other cultural texts. Waste, through its numerous variants (rubbish, trash, dirt, filth, excrement, junk, refuse, pollution, garbage, litter, debris, and so on), is an unavoidable part of culture that reflects basic human compulsions, denials, desires and failures. It remains a pressing ethical and environmental question. Furthermore, as the ubiquitous ‘other’ of value and material consumption, it is inevitably both tangible and metaphoric. In its openness to recycling and classification, it has a lot in common with literature itself. During the course, we will study a range of theoretical perspectives that help us interpret and contextualize different types of waste appearing in fictions and elsewhere. We will also consider how understandings of waste depend on time and place, and how they have changed with new kinds of environmental awareness. Assessment will be by class participation and an essay.