English 184 - Spring, 2013

Literature of the Environment

Class Information

Instructor: Ziser, Michael
CRN: 62591
Time: TR 1:40-3:00
Location: 1128 Hart

Description

Commonsense divisions between nature and culture—be they comforting or terrifying—cannot survive the scrutiny of literature. ENL 184 will explore this ecocritical lesson through immersion in a variety of cultural moments: from the 18th-century division of the environment into immediate material home and alienated aesthetic object, we will turn to memoirs, poems, polemics, and novels that stitch these two halves back together again by thinking deeply about embodied perception, physical labor, pollution, agriculture, conservation, animality, and other more-than-human subjects. Texts will range from classic Romantic poetry and Transcendentalist nonfiction (Wordsworth, Shelley, and Thoreau) to contemporary world novels (Ghosh and Sinha) with several stops in the 19th and 20th centuries along the way.

Grading

Grading will be based on 2 papers (25% and 35%), a final exam (25%), and several short informal assignments (15%).

Texts

Walden, Henry David Thoreau
The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh
SIlent Spring, Rachel Carson
Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams
My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki
The Island of Doctor Moreau, H. G. Wells
The Open: Man and Animal, Giorgio Agamben
Animal\'s People, Indra Sinha