1 NORTH AMERICAN PETROCULTURES Dresden University of Technology Faculty of Linguistics, Literature, and Cultural Studies Summer 2021 Instructors Jun.-Prof. Dr. Moritz Ingwersen (TU Dresden) Dr. Brent Bellamy (Trent University, ON) Dr. Rachel Webb Jekanowski (Memorial University, NL) Contact: moritz.ingwersen@tu-dresden.de Synopsis The twentieth century has been called the American century and the American century was built on oil. At the beginning of the twenty- first century, we are confronted with the ecological repercussions of a modernity that was based on carbon energy and it has become imperative to envision a future beyond oil and fossil fuels. With a focus on North American literature (U.S., Canada, and Indigenous Nations), this course will introduce students to the cultural traces of petromodernity. More often than not, oil hides in plain sight. From road movies to plastic bags, oil products are ubiquitous in North American consumer culture. Yet, oil usually only enters public consciousness when it stops flowing or when it spills. Oil may be understood as the life blood of capitalist industry, the lubricant of the American way of life, and the fuel of ongoing settler-colonial land policies in Canada and the United States. It has also produced some of the most iconic and painful images of ecological devastation, imperialism, and environmental injustice. Petrocultures produce their own aesthetics—from burning oil fields, to gleaming chrome fenders, landscapes of extraction, and Indigenous pipeline protests. Against the backdrop of the global climate emergency and the dire need to imagine alternative energy futures, this course enables students to reflect on the impact of oil on their own life and to develop an awareness of how to look for the “energy unconscious” in art, culture, and politics. With an emphasis on works of literary fiction, we will engage with a wide variety of cultural texts, from science fiction, to graphic narratives, nonfiction film, and photography. Key theoretical readings will come from the emerging fields of the Energy Humanities and highlight themes such as environmental justice, petromodernity, petro-horror, slow violence, the post-apocalypse, Indigenous activism, and ecotopia. This course will take place online. Attendance at synchronous weekly discussion sessions is optional but recommended. All mandatory credits can be fulfilled asynchronously. This is a reading-intensive seminar and students will be required to submit regular reading responses. This course will be co-facilitated with Dr. Rachel Webb Jekanowski and Dr. Brent Ryan Bellamy, two international experts in the field of petrocultures from Canada. Course Texts: To be purchased: Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower (1993), any edition All other course texts will be made available on OPAL. Course Setup All mandatory components of this course can be fulfilled asynchronously. All readings and assignments will be organized through OPAL. Weekly reading response questions will be posted a week in advance. The course slot (Tuesday, 18:00-20:30) will be used for synchronous discussions of the readings. Attendance during the live discussion slot is recommended but not mandatory. Zoom Links will be posted on OPAL.