Module manager: Professor David Higgins
Email: d.higgins@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
ENGL5834M Romantic Ecologies
This module is not approved as an Elective
This module will invite students to reflect on human encounters with the more-than-human world in the British Romantic period. We will investigate the literary representation of local and global habitats and climates; of animals and plants; and of naturalists, colonists, and visionaries. Students will interrogate the significance of Romanticism for environmental thought, and trace connections between Romantic-period debates and present-day ecological issues. They will examine the relationship between Englishness, Britishness, and colonial expansion, recognising how biological interactions helped shape the history of empire. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
To explore how Romantic writing imagined the lives, the influence, and the ethical importance of non-human beings. To understand relevant social, political, and environmental contexts for Romantic literature. To reflect on the relationship between Romantic texts and contemporary ecological concerns.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
1. Identify the historical emergence of ecological ideas and debates in Romantic writing.
2. Analyse representations of the nonhuman in Romantic texts.
3. Evaluate relevant criticism and scholarship about Romantic literature and ecology.
4. Conduct independent research, evaluating primary and secondary sources.
5. Compose an appropriately referenced academic argument.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seminar | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Private study hours | 280 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
Formative feedback will be provided weekly in seminars and in response to students’ seminar preparation. Feedback on the first assessment will be formative for the second assessment.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Analysis | 25 |
| Coursework | Essay | 75 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 30/04/2025
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