English 680 Syllabus

Broadly defined, ecocriticism is an emerging "branch" of literary criticism concerned with the textual representation of nature. While the field has often concerned itself with recognizing or re-canonizing the genre of "nature writing," this course will read "classics" of American literature from an ecocritical perspective, asking what is the view of non-human nature represented in such texts.

We will deal with the pleasures and problems of "the sense of place." While creating a strong sense of identify and richness of experience on the one hand, the sense of place can also be framed to keep out those without this "sense." Drawing on contemporary theories of both regionalism and ecocriticism, we will examine centuries of conflict between natural conditions and the rhetoric of conquest. This legacy of dominion shapes a wide array of literary landscapes, from wilderness to cities, while it frames the textual conventions that "displace" certain figures--women, minorities, and writers.

Week	Texts and Topics
1	Introduction to course and course policies. View film: Mindwalk
2	Ecocriticism and the Sense of Place Westling, The Green Breast of the New World Selections: The Ecocriticism Reader: Glotfelty; White, Jr.; Howarth; Mazel; Campbell; Sanders; Love; Silko View also the online forum on ecocriticism held in PMLA* at the ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment) website. (If you wish, see the other articles on an "Introduction to Ecocriticism."
3	The New World Peter Nabokov, Native American Testimony (Part I) Selections: Columbus, Lewis and Clark, John Smith, Powhatan Reports: Josephy, America in 1492; Meinig, The Shaping of America *Frank X Walker reads at 7:30 on Thursday, Sept. 7
4	Glacial Upland Thoreau, Walden Selections: Dickinson, "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass," "A Bird Came Down the Walk", "This is My Letter to the World"; Emerson, (optional--use this web study text of "Nature" to skim and search for terms); Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" Reports: Buell, The Environmental Imagination; Westbrook, The New England Town; Cronon, Changes in the Land
5	Coastal Plain Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Selections: Whitman, Beston, Melville, Stevens, Williams (optional: view Fitzgerald's short story, "Winter Dreams," a forerunner to The Great Gatsby. Check out the art work too, to give you some idea of the piece's magazine and historical context. I'll have one-page hand-outs of anything else during class.) Reports: Stilgoe, Borderland; Greenfield, Narrating Discovery
6 9/26	River, Delta, Gulf Welty, Delta Wedding; Faulkner, Go Down Moses* ("The Bear, "Delta Autumn") Selections: Harris, Cable, Chopin, Twain. Guest speaker: Jim Minick on food. Reports: Cray, Writing in the South; Cowdrey, This Land, This South
7 10/3	Piedmont and Appalachia Frazier, Cold Mountain* Selections: Byrd, Jefferson, Bartram, DuBois, Murfree, Kephart, Glasgow, Wolfe Guest Speaker: Don Secreast on "My Famous Friend Chuck" Check out this view of Cold Mountain Reports: Lanier, The Poetics of Appalachian Space; Marshall, Storyline
8 10/10	Prairie Towns Dreiser, Sister Carrie See a brief bio on Dreiser. Some good definitions of realism and naturalism. Selections: Garland, Sandburg, Sinclair, Lewis Reports: Cronon, Nature's Metropolis; Fairbanks, Prairie Women
9 10/17	Great Lakes Hemingway, In Our Time ("Indian Camp," "Big Two Hearted River: Part 1 and II"); Leopold, A Sand County Almanac ("Goose Music," "The Land Ethic," "Thinking Like a Mountain", "Conservation Esthetic.") Selections: Mowat, Atwood, Keilor Reports: Kolodny, The Lay of the Land; Tall, From Where We Stand
10 10/31	Great Plains Erdrich, Tracks; Stegner, Wolf Willow (first three essays) Meet at Van Noy's house (details and directions to follow) Selections: Cather, Rolvagg, Ehrlich, Least Heat Moon, Momaday Reports: Maddox, Removals; Frazier, On the Rez; Webb, The Great Plains
11 11/7	Southwest Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop; Abbey, "Down the River" from Desert Solitaire Selections: Austin (The Land of Little Rain), Powell, Van Dyke, Krutch, Silko, Stegner Reports: Cadillac Desert, Reisner; The Desert Smells Like Rain, Nabhan; Norwood, The Desert is No Lady; Flores, Horizontal Yellow
12 11/14	Pacific Rim Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (view film) Selections: Chandler, Didion, Doig, Hammett, Jeffers, Stegner, King, Muir, West, Wallace, Norris Reports: Wyatt, The Fall into Eden; Starr, Inventing the Dream
13	Paper Workshops and mini-conference at Selu. Dec. 1.
14 12/5	Far North Lopez, Arctic Dreams Selections: McPhee, Burroughs, London, Murie, Haines Reports: Bloom, Gender on Ice; Pyne, The Ice; Stegner, American Places