Twentieth Century American Literature of Place Fulbright Professor Rick Van Noy, University of Maribor.

[ Reading Journal ] [ Prompts for Journal Entries ]

We have several goals in this course:

¨ To read some selected works of 20^th century American literature,

¨ To understand the diversity of literary landscapes, both natural and cultural,

¨ To interrogate how nature is represented in these texts:

v Is the land naturally given or an imaginative construct?

v Does the style tend toward the mimetic or figurative?

v How is the land gendered in any way?

v What (his)stories does the land hold?

v What is the relationship between narrator and landscape?

v How do Native American texts differ from non-native ones?

In general, we will ask these questions when we study the works.

We will explore the reciprocal relationships between people and their environment, how they have shaped one another. Nature, here, is not just a stage upon which American history unfolds but an agent in cultural identity. Rather than use a chronological organization, as most survey courses are arranged, we will read selections from U.S. bioregions (Southwest, Great Plains, Mississippi Delta, etc.). I hope you learn about the diversity of U.S. landscapes, both literary and natural, and I hope to learn about your own attitudes toward the topic of “place.”

Why do this?

Because we will sample an important literary genre (nature writing or the literature of place), perhaps the most vital in 20^th century America.

Because we will be reading essays, useful models for your own writing.

Because these essays are short (easily digestible for non-native speakers, and easy to share and photocopy with the dearth of books).

Because nature is something we all share, or is it? What respective attitudes, culture, language do we bring to non-human nature?

Because ecological problems promise to become more pressing with each passing year, and we need to address these in the humanities as well as the natural sciences.

This course will not have an exam. Instead, your grade will be determined by your participation in class, a final paper, a reading journal, and a group presentation/teaching demonstration.

Week	Texts and regions
1 Feb 19	Greetings and logistics. Leslie Marmon Silko, “Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination” (1003-15). Presentation on the Literature of Place.
2 Feb 26	Barry Lopez, “American Geographies” (914-923); John Daniel, “A Word in Favor of Rootlessness” (984-990); The Bioregional Quiz (handout). See also, “The Literature of Place” by Lopez and “When Words Fail” by Daniel. Due: Reflection essay
3 Mar 5	Glacial Upland (New England) Sarah Orne Jewett, “A White Heron.” Robert Frost, selected poems (handouts); Chet Raymo, “The Silence” (754-59); Joseph Bruchac, “The Circle is the Way to See” (811-19); Jane Brox, “Baldwins” (1099-1101); Bill McKibben, “The End of Nature” (1120-1130)
4 Mar 12	Coastal Plain Discussion of The Great Gatsby. Loren Eiseley, “The Judgment of Birds,” (485-494); John McPhee, “Under the Snow (684 -690); Henry Beston, “From The Outermost House”(367-376). River, Delta, Gulf William Faulkner, “The Bear” (handout); Scott Russell Sanders, “Buckeye” (924 -929); See also Sanders, “Stillness.”
7 Apr 2	Great Lakes Ernest Hemingway, “Big Two Hearted River” (handout); Aldo Leopold, from A Sand County Almanac (376-397). Piedmont and Appalachia Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain; Wendell Berry, “An Entrance to the Woods” and “The Making of a Marginal Farm” (718-737); Annie Dillard, “Heaven and Earth in Jest” and “Living Like Weasels” (868-880). See also Berry, “A Citizen’s Response to the National Security Strategy of the U.S.”
8 Apr 9	Great Plains Willa Cather, “Neighbor Rosicky” (handout); N. Scott Momaday, “The Way to Rainy Mountain” (737-743); William Least Heat-Moon, “Under Nell’s Skirt” and “Atop the Mound” (773-78); Louise Erdrich, “Big Grass” (1043-47), “Line of Credit” (handout). begin Cold Mountain (journal conference postponed . . . )
9 Apr 16	Rocky Mountains Norman MacLean, “A River Runs Through It” (458-465); Gretel Ehrlich, “Friends, Foes, and Working Animals” (944-50), Terry Tempest Williams, “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” (1091-98), Rick Bass, “From Nine Mile Wolves” (1114-20). Begin Cold Mountain
11 Apr 23	Cold Mountain (first half) Give out Power to those who are presnt.
13 May 7	Cold Mountain cont'd. Southwest Edward Abbey, “The Serpents of Paradise” and “The Great American Desert” (614-28); Ellen Meloy, “The Flora and Fauna of Las Vegas” 950-959); Barbara Kingsolver, “High Tide in Tucson” (1068-78); See also this link on Southwestern Literature, and one of the best pieces I know on 9-11 called “Small Wonder” by Kingsolver.
14 May 14	Florida Everglades and South Richard Wright, “from Black Boy” (494-497); Alice Walker, “Am I Blue” (863-67), Evelyn White, “Black Women and the Wilderness” (1063-68); Janisse Ray, “Built by Fire” and “Forest Beloved” (1131-37); Linda Hogan, Power (begin). See also this site on Zora Neale Hurston. No Reading Journal due this week or next.
15 May 21	Power cont’d. No Friday Class this week.
16 May 28	Pacific Rim and Far North Ursula Le Guin, “A Very Warm Mountain” (651-658); Gary Snyder, “Ancient Forests of the Far West” (663-84); Maxine Hong Kingston, “A City Person Encountering Nature” (787 - 790); David James Duncan, “Northwest Passage” (1022 - 27); Lopez, Barry, “From “Arctic Dreams” (900 - 913); Raymond Carver, “What’s in Alaska” (handout), Silko, Leslie Marmon, ˝Storyteller” (handout). Hand out final assignment. See also (if interested) Duncan, “When Compassion Becomes Dissent.” Conferences during this week to discuss final (sign up sheet).