Seminar for Writers
Class Information
Instructor: Houston, Pam
CRN: 40493
Time: W 3:10-6:00pm
Location: 120 Voorhies
Description
The More Than Human World
This class will investigate the power and strategies of contemporary works of literature that take as their subject (and take seriously) the more than human world. Animals, fish, plants, geologic formations, as well as realities that may exist parallel to the realities the dominant culture takes for granted. We will contemplate ourselves as creatures. We will consider models of thinking (practiced historically and currently by Indigenous cultures) of ourselves in relation to the nonhuman beings on this planet that may not have led so inevitably to climate collapse and fascistic uprising (just to name two things). We will consider why the same machine that wants to kill wolf puppies and bear cubs in their dens also wants to deny women, queer and trans people bodily autonomy. We will consider the problematic nature of the word anthropomorphize, of consistently assigning little or no "intelligence" to beings we wish to oppress. We will imagine living within a system where the inherent and ancient knowledge of plants and animals was revered rather than ignored, a world in which more humans learned how to listen. We may even imagine the future of an Earth that has managed to shake vast numbers of its most relentless parasite off its back.
There will be weekly writing assignments (mostly creative) and one seminar paper (some combination of creative and scholarly) that each student and the teacher will agree upon.
Grading
Grades will be based on the quality of the class discussion, the completion of the weekly creative assignments, and the quality of the 20 (ish) page seminar paper, which can be a combination of creative and scholarly writing if the student wishes.
Texts
What We Fed To The Manticore, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
How Far The Light Reaches, Sabrina Imbler
Life in a Field, Katie Peterson
The Bear , Andrew Krivak
The Council of Animals, Nick McDonell
The Removed, Brandon Hobson
Gods of Jade and Shadow, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
The Blue Fox, Sj?n
Pig Son (short story), Sequoia Nagamatsu
Nobody Gets Out Alive , Leigh Newman
Ceremony , Leslie Marion Silko