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Course unit, curriculum year 2024–2025
KIE.KK.361

Reading Waste, 5 cr

Tampere University
Teaching periods
Course code
KIE.KK.361
Language of instruction
English
Academic years
2024–2025, 2025–2026, 2026–2027
Level of study
Advanced studies
Grading scale
General scale, 0-5
Persons responsible
Responsible teacher:
Markku Salmela
Responsible organisation
Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences 100 %
Coordinating organisation
Language Studies 100 %
Common learning outcomes
International outlook and global responsibility
Sustainable development
Sustainable development goals
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

This course investigates the meanings of waste through literary and other cultural texts. Waste, through its numerous variants (rubbish, trash, dirt, filth, excrement, junk, refuse, pollution, garbage, litter, debris, and so on), is an unavoidable part of culture that reflects basic human compulsions, denials, desires and failures. It remains a pressing ethical and environmental question. Furthermore, as the ubiquitous ‘other’ of value and material consumption, it is inevitably both tangible and metaphoric. In its openness to recycling and classification, it has a lot in common with literature itself. During the course, we will study a range of theoretical perspectives that help us interpret and contextualize different types of waste appearing in fictions and elsewhere. We will also consider how understandings of waste depend on time and place, and how they have changed with new kinds of environmental awareness. Assessment will be by class participation and an essay.

Learning outcomes
Studies that include this course
Completion option 1

Participation in teaching

No scheduled teaching