Course detail

Nature after nature

FaVU-PROPRAcad. year: 2019/2020

The course focuses on introducing issues of nature and landscape reflection not only as natural phenomena, but also as cultural phenomena, or in transversal perspectives that have been separated for many centuries in European thinking (influenced by Rationalism and Enlightenment). The lecture part of the course will present a basic range of ways of thinking about nature and landscape from the point of view of aesthetics, cultural studies, botany, ecology, ecology, philosophy. The seminar section will be based on group discussions on specific issues and art and curatorial projects devoted to the topic being studied; several seminars will take place with the participation of invited guests, experts from various fields of science.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

2

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Students will get acquainted with different perspectives on nature and landscape, will be able to relate to concepts of cultural landscape, urban landscape, wilderness, anthropocene, or capitalocene in a critical and creative way.

Prerequisites

A comprehensive overview of social and cultural events.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course is based on a combination of lectures and seminars focused on joint discussion of selected texts, or discussion with invited guests.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

The credit is awarded on the basis of a curator or artistic project, or an essay up to five standard pages.

Course curriculum

Lectures on topics:
Landscape and Nature from a perspective of aesthetics and philosophy – historical overview.
Landscape and Nature from a perspective of aesthetics and philosophy – current situation.
Anthropocene – history of the influence of European civilization on nature (global view).
Collapses of civilizations and cultures as a consequence of environmental change; Nature and capital.
Art and Anthropocene – overview of art and curatorial projects.

Seminars:
(preliminary themes, the guests will be specified during the semester)
1. Human activity in the landscape from the Neolithic to the Industrial Era: not only destructive, but also landscape-forming processes (2 seminars – prehistory, middle ages and modernity – local view);
2. The urban and post-industrial landscape as a new wilderness, a free agricultural landscape as a new desert;
3. Extinction of species x new intruders – a look at evolutionary biology, philosophy, anthropology, art; memory of animals and plants in art, folklore, mythology;
4., 5. – Analysis of specific works of art, literature and film (especially sci-fi and related genres)

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

The aim of the course is to introduce students to a topic that has become the center of attention during recent years in connection with the increasing trend of anthropogenic influences on local ecosystems and the geosphere as a whole and to demonstrate – In connection with this topic – how the discourses of science and art overlap.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Attendance compulsory (75 percent).

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Naomi KLEIN, This Changes Everything. Penguin Books, 2015. (EN)
T. J. DEMOS, Decolonizing Nature. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016. (EN)

Recommended reading

Alan WEISMAN, Svět bez nás. Praha: Argo – Dokořán, 2008. (CS)
Ashley Dawson: Extinction: A Radical History. New York: OR Books, 2016. (EN)
Donna J. HARAWAY, Staying With the Trouble. Duke University Press, 2016. (EN)
Eduardo KOHN, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. University of California Press, 2013. (EN)
Elizabeth KOLBERT, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Henry Holt & Company, 2014. (EN)
James LOVELOCK, Gaia vrací úder. Praha: Argo, 2009. (CS)
Jason W. MOORE et al., Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. KAIROS, 2016. (EN)
Lucy Lippard, Undermining. A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West. New York: The New Press, 2014. (EN)
Lynn MARGULISOVÁ, Symbiogenetická planeta. Praha: Academia, 2004. (CS)
Nathalie BLANC – Barbara L. BENISH, Form, Art and the Environment: Engaging in Sustainability. Routledge 2016. (EN)
Pavel Hájek, ed.: Krajina a revoluce. Malá skála: Malá skála, 2005. (CS)
Simon SCHAMA, Krajina a paměť. Praha: Argo – Dokořán, 2007. (CS)
Ursula K. HEISE, Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species. University of Chicago Press, 2016. (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM Master's

    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

13 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová
doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D.

Seminar

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D.