Page 88 - HKSYU Prospectus 2023-24

Shue Yan University Prospectus 2023-24

ENG 388 American Literature
1 Term; 3 Credits
The course is a survey of selected American authors representing major periods and
movements, from the colonial period to the contemporary era. Texts will be drawn from various
genres (e.g. poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, graphic novel) and discussed in light of their
historical, cultural and intellectual contexts.

ENG 389 Travel and Culture
1 Term; 3 Credits
Travel has recently become a complex phenomenon of unprecedented proportions. This
course aims at providing a theoretical and historical framework to analyse and reflect upon the
relationships between travel and culture through an interdisciplinary approach. Topics
discussed include: globalization, gender, consumption, theme parks, ecology, heritage and
authenticity, etc. Travel writing will also be emphasized.

ENG 406 Literature, Culture and Ecological Ethics
1 Term; 3 Credits
This course introduces students to the relatedness among ecology, culture and literature.
Students are expected to first acquire a grasp of modern ecological concepts such as how
ecology is different from biology, environmental politics and global crises and animal extinction
etc. Then students will delve into issues within ecological ethics or “life ethics” as a way of
going beyond the confines of environmentalism per se. Texts on cultural geography,
environment and social theory, ecotheology, mythology, ecofeminism and the Anthropocene
will be used, and they are placed alongside chosen western literary works (novels, poems,
short stories) as well as cultural texts such as films, TV shows (including animation) for
illustration. This course adopts an “intercultural studies” approach, hence “green cultural
studies” both in its theory and practice, will be an important element of the course.

ENG 409 Interdisciplinary Approach to English Studies
1 Term; 3 Credits
Knowledge-claims in the 21st century have gone beyond the modernist mind-set of
departmentalization. In an emerging network culture and unprecedented complexity of
learnings, students need to adopt a more mobile and permeable “interdisciplinary” approach to
what they learn from University. This seminar is designed for students in English to achieve a
sense of integration among the various components in their curriculum. Besides reading
materials which deal directly with ideas such as counter-disciplinary praxis, the intersection of
natural science, social sciences and humanities, the philosophy of difference which stresses a
relational ontology, etc., students will be initiated into actual working of what is now called
“Intercultural Studies” as an umbrella concept of such an approach.

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