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English 680
(Special Topics):
Literature and the Environment: Writing for an Endangered World
Fall 2003
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The sociologist Ulrich Beck has
said that “only if nature is brought into people’s everyday images, into
the stories they tell, can its beauty and its suffering be seen and
focused on” (qtd. in Buell 1). The success of environmentalism may depend
less on some arcane new science or technology than on attitudes, images,
narratives (Buell 1). This course takes its title from Lawrence Buell’s
new book (2001) and it will follow it in structure, theme, and approach.
Each week we will read a chapter from Writing for an Endangered World
along with a primary text that falls under that topic.
Buell is the author of one of
the first works of ecocriticism, The Environmental Imagination
(1996). Ecocriticism investigates the interconnections between nature and
culture, specifically the cultural artifacts of language and literature.
“As a critical stance, it has one foot in literature and the other on
land” (Woodlief).
Environmental texts can reconnect readers with places or direct them to
alternative futures. In this course, students should understand how
environmental influences can influence the creative imagination, and,
alternatively, how the power of those works can re-direct thinking about
the environment, what it is and what it might be.
As we crisscross the U.S.
landscape, we will move back and forth between genres (non-fiction,
fiction, poetry), periods (19th and 20th century
American writers), and cultures (both Native- and African-American).
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Week |
Topic and Readings
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1
8/28 |
Greetings and Logistics.
“Introduction” to WEW and to
ecocriticism. View film, MindWalk.
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2
9/4 |
Toxic Discourse: Addressing the Problem (Chapter 1)
Don Delillo, “The Airborne Toxic Event” (selections from White Noise),
selections from Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, selection from Terry
Tempest Williams, “The Clan of the One Breasted Women (Refuge).
“The Postnatural Novel: Toxic Consciousness in Fiction in the 1980’s,”
Cynthia Deitering. See also the sections in this article on the “Literature
of Place” about Delillo’s novel. And, if you can stand it,
Ann Coulter on the (little known) connections between the French,
deodorant, DDT, and global warming. David Orr at 8:00 |
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3
9/11 |
The Place of Place: The Importance of the Place Imagination
(Chapter 2)
selections from Haines; Silko; Abrams; Berry; Lopez, “The
Literature of Place”; Eisley, and Kingsolver, "Knowing
our Place."
Due: Reflective
(informal) essay on place |
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4
9/18 |
Retreiving the Unloved Place (78-83)
John Edgar Wideman, Damballah. Selections from African American
nature writers. |
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5
9/25 |
The Flaneur’s Progress:
Re-inhabiting the City (Chapter 3)
William Carlos Williams,
Paterson
(books I – IV) |
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6
10/2 |
Discourses of Determinism: Our Animal Selves (Chapter 4)
Jane Adams, “A Modern
Lear,”selections from naturalism: Jeffers, Wright,
Norris, Dreiser, Dickens.
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7
10/9 |
Watershed Aesthetics: Rethinking Boundaries (Chapter 8)
William Least Heat-Moon, RiverHorse
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8
10/16 |
No Class. |
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9
10/23 |
Modernization and the Claims of the Natural World:
Environmental Ethics and History
(Chapter 5)
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (January-April, October in Part
I, "Thinking Like a Mountain" in Part II, "The
Land Ethic" and "Wilderness" from III) ).
William Faulkner, Go Down Moses ("Pantaloon in Black," "The Bear,"
"Delta Autumn,")
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10
10/30
Scribe: Josh Harrod |
Ecological Literacy: Scientific Illiteracy. Sprituality
and Environmentalism
Also, “Carpet Bagging Nature; Or, Why Ain’t There No
Oneness ‘Round Here?” Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek
Due:
close reading.
Buell's chapter on
"Environmental Representation" here. |
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11
11/6
Scribe: Kristen Sims
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Global Commons as Resource and as Icon: Imagining Oceans
as Whales, Saving Megafauna (Or, Screw Willy, Free the Biota) (Chapter 6)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1-"Loomings,"
10-13,
42-"The Whiteness of the Whale,"
58-"Brit,"
87-"Grand Armada,"
93-"The Castaway,"
94-"A Sqeeze of the Hand,"
96-"The Try Works,"
99-"The Doubloon,"
FYI, some info on the fact
fish populations worldwide are in serious decline (also
here).
Due: annotation
(email so we may post them to a course page,
like this) |
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12
11/13
Scribe:?? |
The Misery of Beasts and Humans: Non-anthropocentric
Ethics vs. Environmental Justice (Chatper 7)
Linda Hogan, Power
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13
11/20 |
Bringing Back Wonder: The Aesthetics of the Sublime
selections from Thoreau, Powell, Cronon, Worster
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14
12/4 |
Eco-composition
Issues in teaching environmental writing, environmental activism.
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Requirements:
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Faithful attendance
and discussion
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A close reading of
one of our primary texts (3-5 pages) and an annotation (1 if book, 2 if
article or book chapter) of other ecocritical works (sample
here, but add MLA notation)
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Option of seminar
paper or exam. Ideas for paper could include an extension of one of
Buell’s chapters/topics (discussing a text he left out) or “adding” a
chapter , such as the sublime, spirituality and environmentalism, etc.
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Attend the October
14 reading by Heat-Moon |
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