Environ<=>mental Literature

English 235 - Spring 2002

Steve Phelan

phelan@rollins.edu

http://fox.rollins.edu/~phelan

I. THE SHAPE OF CREATION (mythos)

Week	Date	Readings and Topics of Discussion (* = a handout; # = on reserve in the Olin Library, @ = find on the web)
1)	Tues, Jan. 15	Course introductions: the origins of nature From creation mythology to epic literature to romanticism
	Thur. Jan. 17	Read: Genesis chapters 1-4, the two accounts of creation in the Bible #The Universe Story: read the Prologue, the Timeline* (269ff), and whichever chapter of cosmic evolution interests you the most
		Journal: write your own creation account for workshop You may wish to imagine one particular moment in the timeline or try to answer an important question with your story (how come we have ...?). Put your name and address on your journal and always bring it to class.
2)	Tues. Jan. 22	Research: find information and esp. creation account(s) for the Native American tribe in your home place (habitat or bioregion ) The Day Before America - campus ecotour
	Thur. Jan. 24	Come prepared to report on the world view of your adopted tribe Bring copy of creation account to read aloud or summarize in class Browse through #Freund or #Long to get a sense of the kinds of creation myths. What kind of creation myth is the one you found? How would you map worldview of the tribe you studied?

II. THE AMERICAN NATIONS (melos)

Week	Date		Readings and Topics of Discussion (* = a handout; # = on reserve in the Olin Library, @ = find on the web)
		A	THE NORTHEAST
3)	Tues. Jan. 29		# Ralph Waldo Emerson: Read the essays "Nature" and "The American Scholar"# or @; extra credit readings: "The Poet," "Circles," "Thoreau," "History," and "Self Reliance"
			Journal: write your own personal essay about an experience of your own habitat or childhood for a real audience, such as your local Audubon newsletter
			@The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights
	Thurs. Jan. 31		@Henry David Thoreau: Walden (essential chapters to read: "Economy," "Where I Lived and What I Lived For," "The Bean Field," and "The Pond in Winter) Extra credit: Thoreau journal entries or the essay “Walking”
4)	Tues. Feb. 5		Workshop on the questions: What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be Native?

III. MAGNANIMAL AND THE SPECIES SELF (dianoia)

The butterfly refuses to stay in this nice little space i made just for her. Maybe it's because i stole her from a book without getting her permission.

Week	Date	Readings and Topics of Discussion (* = a handout; # = on reserve in the Olin Library, @ = find on the web)
	Thurs. Feb. 7	Walt Whitman: read "Song of Myself" (see strategy sheet)
		Journal: what is your definition of "myself"? how many different selves or I's or voices do you find? What structure do you see here? Try your hand at his style of free verse for the next workshop
5)	Tues. Feb. 12	Read "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" Extra credit poems: "The Sleepers," "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," "When Lilacs Last…," "As I Ebbed with the Ocean of Life," and "Osceola"
		Video in class: from the Voices and Visions Series
	Thurs. Feb. 14	Whitman workshop outdoors: Be ready to read your poem in a small group

IV. THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE (lexis)

PHONOLOGY MORPHOLOGY SYNTAX DISCOURSE ANALYSIS SEMANTICS

6)	Tues. Feb. 19	John Burroughs: Read #"A Sharp Lookout" from Signs and Seasons
		Field trip: second campus ecotour with field guides
		Journal: start a project of observation for the whole term, to be documented in your journal--expand this feature of the natural world into your global imagination, do some biological research on it--natural history, developmental features, speciation, ecological values, behaviors, etc.

V. BIOREGIONAL SETTINGS (opsis & scene)

Week	Date		Readings and Topics of Discussion (* = a handout; # = on reserve in the Olin Library, @ = find on the web)
		B	THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
	Thurs. Feb. 21		# or @John Muir: (by using the alphabetical index you can find almost all of these essays on www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings ) "Camping Among the Tombs" (1000), "The Water Ouzel" (MC), "Emerson at Yosemite" (ONP), "The Douglas Squirrel" (MC), “Twenty Hill Hollow,” and “Wild Wool” (ST)
			Journal: a good week to write about camping, hiking, your first mountain experiences, glaciers, snow, the idea of the west or frontier. What is wilderness for you? How wild are you? What have you learned from your pet(s) about wildness or animal virtues?
7)	Tues. Feb. 26		Read "The Discovery of Glacier Bay" (TinA) or Stickeen Extra credit: "The Country of the Chilcats” (TinA)
			Video in class: Alaska's Glaciers

		C	THE DESERT: CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHWEST
	Thurs. Feb. 28		Mary Hunter Austin: The Land of Little Rain (read the first seven chapters; pick and choose among the rest)
			Journal: how would you name the land you come from? How does Austin dig into the land? What is her definition of nature?
8)	Tues. Mar. 5		Austin and Ansel Adams, a display of photography with words from The Land of Journey's Ending, from the Archives Extra credit: "Walking Woman" or chapters 1-5 of Austin's autobiography #Earth Horizon
	Thurs. Mar. 7		Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire Read Chapters 1-5 (pp. 1-68)
9)	Mar. 9 To Mar. 17
10)	Tues. Mar. 19		Abbey: read one of the two chapters on Cowboys and Indians (6 or 7) read the chapter on Water (pp. 129-46)
		D	APPALACHIA
	Thurs. 21		Forrest Carter: The Education of Little Tree (first 6 chapters)
11)	Tues. Mar. 26		Little Tree: middle chapters Journal: who gave you the best environ<=>mental education? What did you learn? What will you tell your children? What will you do with them? (SAVE THESE PROMISES!)
	Thurs. Mar. 28		Rest of Little Tree Workshop

VI. THE COMMUNITY OF THE LAND (ethos)

		E	THE UPPER MIDWEST
12)	Tues. Apr. 2		Aldo Leopold: Sand County Almanac (read all twelve months), but come prepared to talk about your favorite one
	Thurs. Apr. 4		Read: "The Land Ethic" and make an outline with key quotations For your own delight read the short piece: "Thinking Like a Mountain"
			Journal: what are the ethical principles inherent in the almanac sections? What sense of right or good action do you get from each month's account? What is your favorite month in the year? Can you turn your observation project into an almanac format?

VII. WE ARE GAIA! (who are you?)

13)	Tues. Apr. 9	Modern Poetry: adopt a poet from the published list, find a volume or two in the library, look for the poems you like the best, that fit your purposes, that fit your habitat, that encapsulate the course in some way, and bring a copy of the best to read in class
	Thurs. Apr. 11	More reading of American nature poetry Workshop outside and/or on field trip

VIII. FLORIDA'S LITERATURE AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

		F	FLORIDA AND THE SOUTHEAST
14)	Tues. Apr. 16		Introduction to Florida history and settlement: Reports: Cabeza da Vaca, William Bartram, John James Audubon, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Archie Carr Read Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: Cross Creek (chaps. 1-6, 10-12, 22-23)
			Journal: What is the real Florida? Is Disney a good thing? What is the most significant loss you feel personally in the changes this century to your habitat?
	Thurs. Apr. 18		Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (first 100pp)
15)	Apr. 23		Next hundred pages
			Journal: what makes this an environmental work of art? What do women writers of this course add to the picture? What does love have to do with it?
	Thurs. Apr. 25		Rest of the novel Final workshop
16)	Tues. May 7		Final Examination 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

CONFERENCES AND INFORMATION:

Please come and see me at Orlando 109. For office hours and class schedule, consult my web site (http://fox.rollins.edu/~phelan). Make appointments after class or by phone (x2409) or through email (phelan@rollins.edu). On my web site, in addition to this syllabus, you may find a wealth of information about the basic concepts of my courses, my own critical perspectives, and my criteria for grading papers. Of special value are the brief descriptions of Techniques of Literary Analysis which are featured in the six major categories of this syllabus (following Aristotle).

COURSE POLICIES:

During the course of the term we will organize some optional field trips and many classes will be held outdoors. Your experiences of nature, past and present, should be used to help focus your thinking on the concepts of the course. Furthermore, in advance of each class, you should write in your notebook how the readings of the course have helped to cultivate your own ideas or have caused you to reflect back on your own life. Follow the questions in the syllabus or create better ones.

Each student will create a portfolio of revised pieces of the journal and an essay which serves to summarize or encapsulate the values you have learned in the course (8-10 typed pages, double spaced, carefully edited!). BRING THIS PROJECT TO THE FINAL!

GRADE FORMULA:

Ø 20% class participation/preparation/reports/quizzes

Ø 20% final project

Ø 20% final exam

Ø 40% journal itself (40 hours work, minimum)

ATTENDANCE:

§ less than 90% attendance is grounds for failure

§ if by some accident you come late to class, please enter quietly and excuse yourself after class

§ students who come consistently late or exceed the number of allowed absences will be warned and then assigned a report that will be useful to the class

§ when we take off-campus field trips, please tell someone if you can't come, so that we are not waiting for you in the parking lot