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This class will explore the deep as a space for change, metamorphosis, and symbiotic existence between human and non-human, specifically in contemporary 21st-century literature (other forms will also be considered and discussed). Oceans and seascapes defy separation from landscapes and instead embrace the fluid space that encompasses all of the terra(ins). I argue that contemporary authors, especially women writers (but not exclusively), shift the common perspective of the deep in literary texts from one of horror to the many of holo(bionts). A practice of an ongoing, perpetual queering of the deep, of bodies, of living and dying. Propelled by the inspirations gathered and shared by Donna J. Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble, this class discusses the deep as a simultaneously speculative and real home for this trouble - this worlding of memories, moments, and movements.
If you’re extra keen and want to do a bit of reading before the class, I recommend the following texts:
Non-fiction:
Staying with the Trouble by Donna J. Haraway (chapters 1-4)
The Deep: A Companion edited by Marko Teodorski and Simon Bacon
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology by Astrida Neimanis (introduction)
Fiction:
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Pod by Laline Paull
The North Shore by Ben Tufnell
