LITERATURE AND HUMANITIES

ENVIRONMENTALISM IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Speaker: Richard Kerridge on 20 October 1998

Richard Kerridge after setting the stage by explaining how important environmental issues had become in modern life, explained how he had studied environmental issues from a different angle, that is, from the perspective of literature and films and artistic media. Mr. Kerridge said, "I am particulariy fascinated by how the environmental crisis makes itself felt in literature from the classical novels of Thomas Hardy to the contemporary shock novels." The speaker proceded by reading a few selections from Hardy and from various other authors, recent films and television thrillers to illustrate the nature of this type of writing.
Mr. Kerridge used his background as co-editor of Writing the Environment and his work which twice won him the BBC Wildlife Award for Nature Writing to give reality to his theme.
Betty Suchar