Reading for the Planet: Environmental Crisis and World Literature
Postcolonial and world literary scholar Jennifer Wenzel visited the University of Leeds to deliver a series of events with the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
29-30 November 2019, University of Leeds
The lecture and masterclass were delivered in collaboration with the Centre for World Literatures, the School of English and the Environmental Humanities Research Group. Wenzel is jointly appointed in English and Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University and is a leading figure in the environmental and energy humanities.
Speaking to a packed room, Wenzel delivered the 2018 Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies Annual International Lecture on the topic 'Reading for the Planet: Environmental Crisis and World Literature'. ICPS Director Graham Huggan introduced Wenzel and chaired the event. In this talk, Wenzel considered the role literature and other forms of cultural imagining play in shaping understandings of the world and the planet, specifically in the context of environmental injustice. The talk, which draws on her latest book project current book project is called The Fossil-Fueled Imagination: How (and Why) to Read for Energy, argued for a mode of reading for the planet: “reading from near to there”, across experiential divides, between specific sites and at multiple scales.
The next morning Wenzel spent time with a group of postgraduate students and ECRs from across the university in a masterclass on 'How to Read for Oil'. Participants had read texts by Patricia Yaeger, Imre Szeman, Dominic Boyer and Italo Calvino in advance of the session and together discussed what it means to read for oil, asking how different kinds of texts either work against or contribute to the invisibility of oil in our society. This special masterclass was kindly sponsored by the University of Leeds Environmental Humanities ITN. These events were organized by Rebecca Macklin, PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature.the Centre for World Literatures, the School of English and the Environmental Humanities Research Group. Wenzel is jointly appointed in English and Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University and is a leading figure in the environmental and energy humanities.
