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The course showcases climate fiction as a specific literary genre suggestive of unique constructions of subjectivity, gender identity and modes of living vis-a-vis climate change and environmental disruption, extractivism and capitalist, colonialist systems. Analyzing both fiction and academic research papers on climate change, the course critically engages the possibilities of thinking beyond established epistemologies and introduces students to indigenous knowledges as indispensable sources for ushering in social justice-oriented practices of survivance, coalitional thinking and anti-extractivist activism. Poslední úprava: Jiroutová Kynčlová Tereza, Mgr. et Mgr., Ph.D. (27.09.2025)
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READING GENDER AND CLIMATE FICTION 2025/2026 Academic Year 2025/2026 (Winter Semester 2025) Mgr. et Mgr. Tereza Jiroutová Kynčlová, Ph.D. tereza.jiroutovakynclova@fhs.cuni.cz Office hours: Thursdays 830-10, room 2.40. Please do send an email before coming to my office hours for consultations so that we avoid conflict of meetings taking place at the same time. Thank you. IMPORTANT DETAILS ON COURSE LOGISTICS: -All instruction will be conducted in person. MS Teams will serve as a tool for submitting assignments. -All reading materials are uploaded in the respective files in the SIS. -All submissions (only in word document format) must be uploaded through the MST Assignment features. Students must complete all assignments in order to earn their grade. -All course-related communication should be conducted by contacting me via email at tereza.jiroutovakynclova@fhs.cuni.cz. ABSENCES: Should you not be able to attend a course session, please inform me in advance. Maximum 3 absences during the semester are allowed. AI TOOLS: While AI tools can save time, aide the writing process and help develop various skills in how to conceptualize a task as a fitting prompts needs to be formulated, please refrain from using AI tools when submitting your papers. I encourage you to think for yourselves and do research for sources on your own – this enhances your academic competencies, improves your work with databases and archival materials, and makes you an active agent in your education. Also, at the heart of social sciences and humanities - especially when they study marginalized people, cultures and other-than-human entities as feminist and postcolonial/decolonial theories do – there lies radical empathy and goals of social justice. No AI tool can replace your empathy, invention, creativity, and your epistemological position. COURSE ANNOTATION The course showcases climate fiction as a specific literary genre suggestive of unique constructions of subjectivity, gender identity and modes of living vis-a-vis climate change and environmental disruption, extractivism and capitalist, colonialist systems. Analyzing both fiction and academic research papers on climate change, the course critically engages the possibilities of thinking beyond established epistemologies and introduces students to indigenous knowledges as indispensable sources for ushering in social justice-oriented practices of survivance, coalitional thinking and anti-extractivist activism. FAIR ACADEMIC CONDUCT Failure to acknowledge and properly reference sources of any kind used in assignments, papers and/or presentations is a breach to academic integrity and ethics. At all times, avoid plagiarism of any sort as it is a disciplinary offence and – upon the Faculty of Humanities Disciplinary Committee ruling – may result in termination of study. Presenting some else’s work or ideas as your own and failure to provide credits, acknowledgement, and references to all relevant sources falls under the definition of plagiarism. Should you experience uncertainty about correct ways of quoting and referencing, consult any citation manual and feel free to contact your teachers for advice. We are ready to help you. Also, be advised that the necessity to reference other people’s work and ideas applies equally to published texts (journals, books, articles, newspapers etc.) as well as unpublished texts (lectures, presentations, seminars, student papers, diploma theses etc.). Further, other forms of conveying information besides text are also subject to crediting and referencing, such as video material, audio material, computer code, photographs, graphs, illustrations, sheet music, web sites etc. STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS: If you have learning disabilities or you are struggling with the current post-pandemic-related situation and need more time to think, write and work, feel free to let me know anytime and we will find a way to make you feel comfortable while taking the course and meeting its requirements. Thank you. Charles University also offers support and assistance to students with special needs. For more, visit: https://centrumcarolina.cuni.cz/CAENG-1.html REQUIREMENTS: NOTE: Students must complete all requirements listed below in order to receive a grade for the course. 1. Active participation in class discussions – 20% Students are expected to have read the mandatory readings for the given class. Students will showcase and discuss representations/examples of orientalist discourse encountered in the media, popular culture, daily experience and/or academic disciplines. This activity constitutes a part of participation grade. 2. One short paper, 400-words in length – 20% Due: November 18, 2025 – Assignment will be made available in MST. 3. 2 short reaction papers/reflections on readings written in class 20% total (10% each) 2 sessions during the semester will conclude with a written critical reflection on a selected topic discussed during that particular session. Students’ reflections should be based on the required reading, the required audiovisual material, as well as the discussions that that have taken place during the respective session. Students will be able to choose from several topics. Students will have approximately 15 minutes to write their critical reflection; they will write their reflection by hand, not using a computer. The expected length is a maximum of 1 to 1.5 handwritten pages. When writing their reflections, students may (but are not required to) use their own notes. Students will receive brief feedback on each reflection separately, each reaction paper amounts to 10 per cent of the overall course grade. These critical reflections are not a "test" of encyclopedic knowledge of the literature; their purpose is to conceptually organize ideas and analytical observations from a given session and the course so far, with the aim of structuring them and discussing possible inspirations for further study, research, or approaches to various cultural representations of climate change, gender relations, environmental issues and various climate-related genres and concepts of energy humanities. 4. Final paper – 40% Due dates: 12 February 2026, 25 January, 2026, 1 February 2026, The final paper for this course is an academic essay that either: 1] analyzes a selected piece of cultural representation (movie, literary work etc.) using critical interpretative perspectives on climate and it artistic rendering in intersections with feminist theories and gender studies and, ideally, establishes a critical statement about social justice, environmental justice, epistemologies on climate and/or the current socio-political conditions in relationship to environmental protection and conservation; 2] conveys an autoethnography in which the student critically analyzes the impact of climate disruption/climate change on their surroundings (hometown, favorite environment, their experience of being in nature etc.) in intersection with their positionality. It is vital the paper be analytical, not descriptive in its structure and must use gender (or race, ethnicity, disability, class etc.) as an analytical category. The paper is to be between 1500 to 2000 words in length (excluding bibliography). As it is an academic paper, it needs to list the works cited, use inter-textual/parenthetical references and follow proper academic language. Students are kindly asked to avoid using AI tools in the process of writing their final paper. SESSION TOPICS AND DATES 2.10. Course Introduction. Requirements. Expectations. Fears. Hopes. Climate Fiction as a Genre, Gender as and analytical Tool, Audience, Reception. 9.10. Literature (and Arts) Facing Climate Disruption The Tamarisk Hunter by Paolo Bacigalupi. In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB. Ghosh, Amitav. Stories. In The Great Derangement. Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago, London: The Chicago University Press, 2016. 3-84. Additional Sources of Interest: Andersen, Gregers. Climate Fiction and Cultural Analysis A New Perspective on Life in the Anthropocene. London, New York: Routledge, 2020. 16.10. Literature and Source of Knowledge. Speculative Fiction.
The Netherlands Lives with Water by Jim Shepard. In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB. Markley, Robert. Literature, Climate, and Time: Between History and Story. In Johns-Putra, Adeline, ed. Climate and Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 15-30.
23.10. There Is No Culture Without Energy.
The Snows of Yesteryear by Jean-Louis Trudel. In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB.
Szeman, Imre. Towards a Critical Theory of Energy. In Mišík, Matúš, Nada Kujundžić, eds. Energy Humanities. Current State and Future Directions. Cham: Springer, 2021. 23-36.
Szeman, Imre. System Failure: Oil, Futurity, and the Anticipation of Disaster. South Atlantic Quarterly, (2007) 106 (4): 805–823.
30.10.. Fossil Fuels Fuel Subjectivity and Identity Construction.
Daggett, Cara. Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2018, Vol. 47(1) 25–44.
Devereux, Cecily. “Made for Mankind”: Cars, Cosmetics, and the Petrocultural Feminine. In Wilson, Sheena, Carlson, Adam, Imre Szeman, eds. Petrocultures. Oil, Politics, Culture. Montreal, Chicago: McGill-Queen‘s University Press, 2017. 162-186.
Podcast: Boomtown, Episode 5 Boobtown. https://www.texasmonthly.com/podcast/boomtown-episode-5-boobtown/ 6.11. Fiction Becomes Nonfiction. Oil Gobblers. Directed by Jan Svěrák. FAMU. 1988. In-class screening. Badham, Van. Microplastics are everywhere, even in human testicles. So will the patriarchy finally step in? The Guardian, 7 August, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/07/microplastics-are-everywhere-even-in-human-testicles-so-will-the-patriarchy-finally-step-in
Additional Sources of Interest: Landrigan, Philip J et al. The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics, The Lancet, 2025. Volume 406, Issue 10507, 1044 - 1062. Phoebe Weston, Tess McClure. The Life of Plastic. The Guardian. 28 July, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/28/the-life-of-microplastic-how-fragments-move-through-plants-insects-animals-and-you 13.11. READING WEEK – no class (watch Wind River Wind River. Directed by Taylor Sheridan, performances by Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, The Weinstein Company, 2017). The film is available for 80 CZK to stream online in English with Czech subtitles at: https://dafilms.cz/film/13151-vetrna-reka 20.11. Gendering Oil. Genre and Fossil Fuel Production. Gender Based Violence. Discussion on Wind River. Directed by Taylor Sheridan, performances by Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, The Weinstein Company. 2017. The film is available for 80 CZK to stream online in English with Czech subtitles at: https://dafilms.cz/film/13151-vetrna-reka Griffiths, Devin. "Petrodrama: Melodrama and Energetic Modernity." Victorian Studies 60, no. 4 (2018): 611-638. https://dx.doi.org/10.2979/victorianstudies.60.4.05. Additional Sources of Interest: Orielle Lake, Osprey, Charles, Livia. Fossil Fuel Extraction Endangers Women’s Health and Safety. Who Is Accountable? The Gender Policy Report. 23 June, 2021. ASSIGNMENT: Wind River reaction paper due Nov 18. 27.11. Aesthetics and Imagination. Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet by Margaret Attwood In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB. LeMenager, Stephanie. The Aesthetics of Petroleum. In Living Oil. Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. 66-101.
Energy Imaginaries: Feminist and Decolonial Futures Sheena Wilson In Brent Ryan Bellamy and Jeff Diamanti (eds.) Materialism and the Critique of Energy. Chicago: MCM Publishing, 2018. 377-412. 4.12. Gendering Coal. Outliers by Nicole Feldringer. In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB. Scott, Rebecca R. The Gendered Politics of Pro-Mountaintop Removal Discourse. In Removing Mountains. Extracting Nature and Identity in The Appalachian Coalfields. Minneapolis, Londong: University of Minnesota Press. 95-114. Frantál, Bohumil. Living on coal: Mined-out identity, community displacement and forming of anti-coal resistance in the Most region, Czech Republic. Resources Policy, Volume 49, 2016, Pages 385-393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2016.07.011. Additional Sources of Interest: Frantál, Bohumil, Justyna M. Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Filip Alexandrescu, Franziska Stölzel, Petr Klusáček, Ondřej Konečný, Diana Süsser, Agata Lewandowska, Dominik Zieliński. With coal forever? Conflicted attitudes of residents in coal mining areas in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland to coal phase-out. Resources Policy, Volume 101, 2025, 105476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105476. Turp-Balazs, Craig. From coal mines to creative hubs: Eastern European cities are reinventing urban transformation. Emerging Europe. 10 February, 2025. https://emerging-europe.com/analysis/from-coal-mines-to-creative-hubs-eastern-european-cities-are-reinventing-urban-transformation/ 11.12. Vantage Points. Transness. Quiet Town by Jason Gurley In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB Şensoy, Ayşe Climate Fiction as Trans Literature. In Vakoch, Douglas, Sabine Shapr (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature. Routledge, 2024. EPUB. 18.12. Rights of Nature. Insurgency. Decolonialism.
That Creeping Sensation by Alan Dean Foster In John Joseph Adams, ed. Loosed Upon the World. The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. London, New York: Saga Press. 2015. EPUB Podcast: Cultures of Energy, #224 Peak (Whale) Oil. https://cenhs.libsyn.com/page/1/size/25, listen from from 15:55. Walsh, Catherine. Resisting, Re-existing, and Co-existing (De)spite the State. Women’s Insurgencies for Territory and Life in Ecuador. In Espinosa-Miñoso, Yuderkys, Lugones, María and Nelson Maldonado-Torres, eds. Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala. Caribbean, Meso, and South American Contributions and Challenges. New York, London: Rowman & Littlefield. 2021. 217-244.
Additional Sources of Interest: Krista Langlois. When Whales and Humans Talk. Hakai Magazine. Coastal Science and Societies. 3 April, 2018. https://hakaimagazine.com/features/when-whales-and-humans-talk/ The Backward River. A Digital Storytelling Project of the Freshwater Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago. https://thebackwardriver.org/ Estes, Nick. Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. London, New York: Verso, 2019.
9.1. Voids. Absences. Radical Hopes. Activism. Online session via MST, reflection, wrap up Jarvis, Brooke. How a Group of Students in the Pacific Islands Reshaped Global Climate Law. The New York Times Magazine. 10 September, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/magazine/global-climate-law-students.html
Additional Sources of Interest: Sushil, Jey. Confessions of a Radioactive Man. Rust Belt Magazine. 1 April, 2024. https://beltmag.com/confessions-of-a-radioactive-man/ Holá, Barbora, and Thijs Bouwknegt. ‘Jáchymov’s Hell’: Trekking in the Memoryscape of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Forced Labour Camps". International Criminal Law Review 22.1-2 (2022): 328-346. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10095 Web. Voyles, Traci Brynne. Wastelanding. Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
Poslední úprava: Jiroutová Kynčlová Tereza, Mgr. et Mgr., Ph.D. (13.12.2025)
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