Course Syllabus: English 355B/Comparative Literature 396A/PoE 450A

Living in Place: Literature and the Environment

Spring 2010: Mueller 154, Tu/Th 9:30-11:20

Professor Gary Handwerk

Office: A-101 Padelford

Phone: 543-2690

Office Hours: Tu 11:30-1:00 and by appointment

About the course:

Our focus for this course will be upon how literature deals with the environment, i.e., how literary texts represent nature and how they present environmental issues, and why it matters that these issues be represented in this form. How, that is, does where we live and, even more importantly, how we imagine ourselves within the places where we live, affect who we are? How do literary texts affect this understanding? This will not be a course on nature writing or on social science/public policy issues, although our concerns will intersect in numerous ways with both of those perspectives. Instead, we will be studying how particular aesthetic and rhetorical elements get used by different authors to shape our attitudes toward nature and the environment —with "environment" broadly construed as a category that encompasses the whole set of interactions that we as individuals and members of groups have with the physical and social landscapes around us.

Our main goal will be to work toward reading the texts in this course—a set that includes both fictional narratives and a variety of non-fictional essays--more closely and more carefully. Each text represents one or more attitudes toward the environment—varying senses of what the world around us is, how it works, why it is the way it is, and what that means for us as human beings. Moreover, each of the texts also deals with the environment as it bears upon social relations; collectively, they let us explore how our attitudes toward nature and toward other people intersect. As we read them, it is important to remember that they (like literary texts and works of art generally) are not simply descriptive accounts of what particular authors see or feel. They are acts of persuasion, implicit arguments about how we should think and feel and behave that are often all the more effective for the implicitness of their positions. Such texts can thus play an important role in determining how societies think about environmental issues; they help shape the deep base of beliefs and values that frame political debates about public policies.

Learning to read these kinds of texts well is, in addition, a skill that we can also bring to bear on non-literary texts. Most kinds of discourse make extensive use of "literary" sorts of strategies, deploying narrative, imagery, allegory, and other elements typical of literary texts to help them achieve their own rhetorical purposes. It is rare that scientific expertise proves to be the sole determining factor even for what one might construe as scientific issues—the reality of global warming, for instance, or the decision to protect or not protect a specific endangered species. It is even rarer for politicians or bureaucrats to refrain from the slanting of perspective that rhetoric can provide (thus the recent renaming of global warming as "climate change"). So the analysis we will practice in this class is in an important way transferable to the reading and the writing you might do in quite different, non-literary contexts.

Your writing provides the best measure of how well you can perform the kinds of analytical reading we will expect from you. Effective writing is in equal measure a matter of conception and execution, of planning and practice. We will talk about the former most specifically in relation to the longer assignments in the course, where I will try to clarify for you what you are being asked to do and why. We will address the latter by having you write regularly, supplementing the formal, graded essays with a series of ungraded response papers (12 over the quarter) that you will collect in a portfolio at the end of the quarter.

Graded Work:

Response Papers/Portfolio: 1/7 of final grade

Analytical essays (5): 5/7 of final grade

Attendance and participation: 1/7 of final grade

Analytical essays will be graded on a 10 point scale, with 9 = 4.0, 8 = 3.5, 7 = 3.0, etc. Late papers will have 1 point deducted per day. You will be writing five of these (each a one-page, single-spaced, no-margin paper, with topics circulated a week before they are due). Font size should be either 11-point or 12-point; papers using smaller font sizes will be returned unmarked.

Other Essential Information:

1. Both the amount and the different kinds of materials we will be reading make this a challenging course. In addition, the active reading that we expect you to do regularly may be something that you have not had much occasion to practice. So we encourage you to ask questions in class and to see me in office hours for further help if needed. It is your responsibility to come to us with issues you feel are getting in the way of your effective learning.

2. This is an intensive course, requiring you to read 100-200 pages per week and to write regularly about that reading. We expect that for most of you the required work will fill the 12-15 hours a week that the university prescribes as the norm for a 5-credit class. Some of you may find yourselves putting in more time than that during certain weeks.

3. The median grade for the course will very likely be close to the norm for classes in the humanities here, somewhere between 3.1 and 3.3. That isn't the bottom grade; it's the median. That means that it is indeed possible to get a grade below 3.0, even though you have been doing the assigned work and submitting everything on time.

4. Attendance and participation are required. Moreover, they presuppose engaged and timely completion of writing assignments. Late papers will have one point deducted for each calendar day that they are late. For papers due on non-class days, you may choose to submit an electronic copy directly to me that day, but you should still plan to submit a hard copy of the paper for me to grade, on the next class day. I will take roll on occasion and use your response papers and your portfolio work to help me evaluate your class participation.

5. Finally, please DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. If you have any questions about the proper use of outside sources that you have consulted, see me BEFORE you submit the paper.

Course Calendar (subject to change)

March 30 -- Introduction: Wilderness and Development, Humans and Their Others, Toxic Discourse, Global Warming; Reading: Cheryll Glotfelty, "Introduction" to The Ecocriticism Reader

April 1 -- John McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid (Part 1); Buell, "Introduction" to Writing for an Endangered World (PC)

April 6 -- McPhee, Encounters (Parts 2 & 3)

April 8 -- Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (ix-xii; 1-73; 246-58--"Author's Introduction" through the end of "National Parks" and "Havasu")

APRIL 9 -- PAPER #1 DUE (McPhee)

April 13 -- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

April 15 -- Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

April 20 -- Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

April 22 -- William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses, "The Bear"; Max Oelschlager, "Idea of Wilderness" (PC)

APRIL 23 -- PAPER #2 DUE (Defoe)

April 27 -- Faulkner, "The Bear"; Paul Shepherd, "Ontogeny Revisited" (PC)--LAKE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL VISIT: class will take place in an alternate room

April 29 -- Faulkner, "The Bear"

April 30 -- Faulkner, "Delta Autumn"

MAY 7 -- PAPER #3 DUE (Faulkner)

May 6 -- Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (selections to be announced))

May 11 -- Octavia Butler, Wild Seed

May 13 -- Butler, Wild Seed

May 18 -- Butler, Wild Seed; Leopold, "The Land Ethic" (PC)

MAY 21 -- PAPER #4 DUE (Darwin, Butler, Leopold)

May 20 -- Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams (selections tba)

May 25 -- Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather; Lopez, "Landscape and Narrative" (PC)

May 27 -- Lopez, Arctic Dreams; Spencer Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming (PC)

June 1 -- Head, Rain Clouds

June 3 -- Lopez, Arctic Dreams; Weart, Global Warming (PC)--EASTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL VISIT: class will take place in an alternate room

June 7 -- PAPER #5 DUE (Lopez, Head)

JUNE 9 -- PORTFOLIO DUE



Course Texts: John McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire Philip Appleman, Darwin Octavia Butler, Wild Seed Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony	Course Syllabus: English 355B/Comparative Literature 396A/PoE 450A Living in Place: Literature and the Environment Spring 2010: Mueller 154, Tu/Th 9:30-11:20 Professor Gary Handwerk Office: A-101 Padelford Phone: 543-2690 Office Hours: Tu 11:30-1:00 and by appointment E-mail: handwerk@u.washington.edu *About the course:* Our focus for this course will be upon how literature deals with the environment, i.e., how literary texts represent nature and how they present environmental issues, and why it matters that these issues be represented in this form. How, that is, does where we live and, even more importantly, how we imagine ourselves within the places where we live, affect who we are? How do literary texts affect this understanding? This will not be a course on nature writing or on social science/public policy issues, although our concerns will intersect in numerous ways with both of those perspectives. Instead, we will be studying how particular aesthetic and rhetorical elements get used by different authors to shape our attitudes toward nature and the environment —with "environment" broadly construed as a category that encompasses the whole set of interactions that we as individuals and members of groups have with the physical and social landscapes around us. Our main goal will be to work toward reading the texts in this course—a set that includes both fictional narratives and a variety of non-fictional essays--more closely and more carefully. Each text represents one or more attitudes toward the environment—varying senses of what the world around us is, how it works, why it is the way it is, and what that means for us as human beings. Moreover, each of the texts also deals with the environment as it bears upon social relations; collectively, they let us explore how our attitudes toward nature and toward other people intersect. As we read them, it is important to remember that they (like literary texts and works of art generally) are not simply descriptive accounts of what particular authors see or feel. They are acts of persuasion, implicit arguments about how we should think and feel and behave that are often all the more effective for the implicitness of their positions. Such texts can thus play an important role in determining how societies think about environmental issues; they help shape the deep base of beliefs and values that frame political debates about public policies. Learning to read these kinds of texts well is, in addition, a skill that we can also bring to bear on non-literary texts. Most kinds of discourse make extensive use of "literary" sorts of strategies, deploying narrative, imagery, allegory, and other elements typical of literary texts to help them achieve their own rhetorical purposes. It is rare that scientific expertise proves to be the sole determining factor even for what one might construe as scientific issues—the reality of global warming, for instance, or the decision to protect or not protect a specific endangered species. It is even rarer for politicians or bureaucrats to refrain from the slanting of perspective that rhetoric can provide (thus the recent renaming of global warming as "climate change"). So the analysis we will practice in this class is in an important way transferable to the reading and the writing you might do in quite different, non-literary contexts. Your writing provides the best measure of how well you can perform the kinds of analytical reading we will expect from you. Effective writing is in equal measure a matter of conception and execution, of planning and practice. We will talk about the former most specifically in relation to the longer assignments in the course, where I will try to clarify for you what you are being asked to do and why. We will address the latter by having you write regularly, supplementing the formal, graded essays with a series of ungraded response papers (12 over the quarter) that you will collect in a portfolio at the end of the quarter. Graded Work: Response Papers/Portfolio: 1/7 of final grade Analytical essays (5): 5/7 of final grade Attendance and participation: 1/7 of final grade Analytical essays will be graded on a 10 point scale, with 9 = 4.0, 8 = 3.5, 7 = 3.0, etc. Late papers will have 1 point deducted per day. You will be writing five of these (each a one-page, single-spaced, no-margin paper, with topics circulated a week before they are due). Font size should be either 11-point or 12-point; papers using smaller font sizes will be returned unmarked. *Other Essential Information:* 1. Both the amount and the different kinds of materials we will be reading make this a challenging course. In addition, the active reading that we expect you to do regularly may be something that you have not had much occasion to practice. So we encourage you to ask questions in class and to see me in office hours for further help if needed. It is your responsibility to come to us with issues you feel are getting in the way of your effective learning. 2. This is an intensive course, requiring you to read 100-200 pages per week and to write regularly about that reading. We expect that for most of you the required work will fill the 12-15 hours a week that the university prescribes as the norm for a 5-credit class. Some of you may find yourselves putting in more time than that during certain weeks. 3. The median grade for the course will very likely be close to the norm for classes in the humanities here, somewhere between 3.1 and 3.3. That isn't the bottom grade; it's the median. That means that it is indeed possible to get a grade below 3.0, even though you have been doing the assigned work and submitting everything on time. 4. Attendance and participation are required. Moreover, they presuppose engaged and timely completion of writing assignments. Late papers will have one point deducted for each calendar day that they are late. For papers due on non-class days, you may choose to submit an electronic copy directly to me that day, but you should still plan to submit a hard copy of the paper for me to grade, on the next class day. I will take roll on occasion and use your response papers and your portfolio work to help me evaluate your class participation. 5. Finally, please DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. If you have any questions about the proper use of outside sources that you have consulted, see me BEFORE you submit the paper. *Course Calendar (subject to change)* March 30 -- Introduction: Wilderness and Development, Humans and Their Others, Toxic Discourse, Global Warming; Reading: Cheryll Glotfelty, "Introduction" to The Ecocriticism Reader April 1 -- John McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid (Part 1); Buell, "Introduction" to Writing for an Endangered World (PC) April 6 -- McPhee, Encounters (Parts 2 & 3) April 8 -- Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (ix-xii; 1-73; 246-58--"Author's Introduction" through the end of "National Parks" and "Havasu") APRIL 9 -- PAPER #1 DUE (McPhee) April 13 -- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe April 15 -- Defoe, Robinson Crusoe April 20 -- Defoe, Robinson Crusoe April 22 -- William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses, "The Bear"; Max Oelschlager, "Idea of Wilderness" (PC) APRIL 23 -- PAPER #2 DUE (Defoe) April 27 -- Faulkner, "The Bear"; Paul Shepherd, "Ontogeny Revisited" (PC)--LAKE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL VISIT: class will take place in an alternate room April 29 -- Faulkner, "The Bear" April 30 -- Faulkner, "Delta Autumn" MAY 7 -- PAPER #3 DUE (Faulkner) May 6 -- Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (selections to be announced)) May 11 -- Octavia Butler, Wild Seed May 13 -- Butler, Wild Seed May 18 -- Butler, Wild Seed; Leopold, "The Land Ethic" (PC) MAY 21 -- PAPER #4 DUE (Darwin, Butler, Leopold) May 20 -- Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams (selections tba) May 25 -- Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather; Lopez, "Landscape and Narrative" (PC) May 27 -- Lopez, Arctic Dreams; Spencer Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming (PC) June 1 -- Head, Rain Clouds June 3 -- Lopez, Arctic Dreams; Weart, Global Warming (PC)--EASTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL VISIT: class will take place in an alternate room June 7 -- PAPER #5 DUE (Lopez, Head) JUNE 9 -- PORTFOLIO DUE
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