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This course is designed as an introduction to the field of ecocriticism, the area of literary studies that examines the relation between literary texts and environmental issues. Ecocriticism grows in part out of a longstanding critical interest in the topic of nature and its representation in literary texts; it differs in adopting a more contemporary sense of the ecological relation between human beings and the environments they inhabit. We will be surveying some of the critical literature in this field-reading a number of essays that attempt to define the field, as well as longer studies by Jonathan Bate and Lawrence Buell-and examining a number of primary texts to consider how ecocriticism might work in practice: literary texts by such figures as Daniel Defoe, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Wordsworth, William Faulkner and Leslie Marmon Silko, along with several autobiographical works with an environmental focus (Rachel Carson, Terry Tempest Williams and Devra Davis). Required work includes occasional weekly response papers and either a long final essay or a series of six short critical essays.

Instructor: Prof. Gary Handwerk
Email: handwerk@u.washington.edu

Office: B-537 Padelford
Office Hours: Mon 1-3 and by appt.
Telephone: 543-7542

Meeting Times and Locations

Tues/Thur 1:30-3:20

Savery 311

ANNOUNCEMENTS

November 26 2004, 12:04 PM

For Tuesday, November 30, 2004:

Reading: Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (xi-73, 246-58); Guha (Ch. 4); please also bring Leopold's "The Land Ethic" to class

Response Paper: Pick one chapter from Edward Abbey's text and describe what seem to you the essential or inevitable interpretive problems or puzzles that it raises. What questions, that is, would an attentive reader have to confront in reading this part of his text?

For Thursday, December 2, 2004:

Reading: Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1-100); Silko, "Landscape, History and the Pueblo Imagination" (ER, 264-75)

Response Paper: In what way(s) is nature represented in these early sections of Silko's novel? What kind(s) of relationship does Tayo have with it?

November 12 2004, 9:08 AM

Revised Course Calendar:

November 16 --David Morris Visit (poetry packet distributed)

No Response Paper

November 18 -- Faulkner, "The Bear" (Sections 4-5); Buell, "Modernization and the Claims of the Natural World" (PC)

Response Paper Topic: What does Section 5 add to the narrative that precedes it? Why, that is, is it necessary to complete Faulkner's tale?

November 23 -- Faulker, "Delta Autumn"; Aldo Leopold, The Land Ethic" (PC)

Response Paper Topic: How does "Delta Autumn" alter or reinforce your sene of Ike as a character?

November 25 -- Thanksgiving Holiday: No Class

November 1 2004, 9:47 AM

Reading for 11/9/04

Faulkner, "The Bear" (sections 1-3)

Guha, Chapter 3

Response Paper Topic: What is Ike's ethos of nature, that is, what things is he supposed to learn (about nature, about himself, about society) from his time spent in the woods?

November 11: Veterans' Day, No Class

October 26 2004, 8:17 AM

Reading for 11/02/04

Willliam Wordsworth, "Preface" and selected poems (handout)--please pick up a copy of "Tintern Abbey" at the Comp Lit Department offices, if you don't have one, and read that INSTEAD of the Intimations Ode in the handout.

Ramachandra Guha, Chapter 2

Response Paper Topic: Find and discuss a key passage in the Preface (1-2 paragraphs), one that seems to you to bear in the most interesting way upon Wordsworth's view of nature and/or human nature.

Reading for 11/04/04

Rousseau, Reveries (especially Promenades 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10)

Michael Branch, "Indexing American Possibilities" (ER, 282-302); Jonathan Bate, The Song of the Earth (Chapter 2, PC)

Response Paper Topic: How would you describe Rousseau's mode(s) of engagement with nature? What does nature mean to him, what is it for?

October 18 2004, 12:04 PM

Reading for 10/19/04-10/28/04

Robinson Crusoe (Norton Critical Edition):

10/19/04--pp. 1-76 (also Lynn White essay in The Ecocriticism Reader)

10/21/04--pp. 76-142 (also Christopher Manes essay in EC)

10/26/04--pp. 142-79

10/28/04--pp. 180-220

Response Paper Topic for 10/28: What do you make of the end of the novel--i.e., how Crusoe gets off the island, and why, and events subsequent to that?

Those doing Option A (short papers) should review the critical essays in the back of the Norton Edition by Watt, Hunter, Richetti, Damrosch, McKeon and Flynn. Pairs for the collaborative paper should be set up and choice of secondary essay on which to write should be made by 10/26.

Response Paper for 10/19: Open topic

Response Paper for 10/21: In the period of time covered by this section of the text (years 2-24), does Crusoe adjust to and fully accept his fate on the island? Your evidence for whichever answer you pick?

Course Syllabus

Comparative Literature 596/English 559 Living in Place: Literature and the Environment Autumn 2004

This course is designed as an introduction to the field of ecocriticism, the area of literary studies that examines the relation between literary texts and environmental issues. Ecocriticism grows in part out of a longstanding critical interest in the topic of nature and its representation in literary texts; it differs in adopting a more contemporary sense of the ecological relation between human beings and the environments they inhabit. We will be surveying some of the critical literature in this field-reading a number of essays that attempt to define the field, as well as longer studies by Jonathan Bate and Lawrence Buell-and examining a number of primary texts to consider how ecocriticism might work in practice: literary texts by such figures as Daniel Defoe, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Wordsworth, William Faulkner and Leslie Marmon Silko, along with several autobiographical works with an environmental focus (Rachel Carson, Terry Tempest Williams and Devra Davis). Required work includes occasional weekly response papers and either a long final essay or a series of six short critical essays.	Instructor: Prof. Gary Handwerk Email: handwerk@u.washington.edu Office: B-537 Padelford Office Hours: Mon 1-3 and by appt. Telephone: 543-7542 Meeting Times and Locations Tues/Thur 1:30-3:20 Savery 311 ANNOUNCEMENTS November 26 2004, 12:04 PM For Tuesday, November 30, 2004: Reading: Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (xi-73, 246-58); Guha (Ch. 4); please also bring Leopold's "The Land Ethic" to class Response Paper: Pick one chapter from Edward Abbey's text and describe what seem to you the essential or inevitable interpretive problems or puzzles that it raises. What questions, that is, would an attentive reader have to confront in reading this part of his text? For Thursday, December 2, 2004: Reading: Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1-100); Silko, "Landscape, History and the Pueblo Imagination" (ER, 264-75) Response Paper: In what way(s) is nature represented in these early sections of Silko's novel? What kind(s) of relationship does Tayo have with it? November 12 2004, 9:08 AM *Revised Course Calendar:* November 16 --David Morris Visit (poetry packet distributed) No Response Paper November 18 -- Faulkner, "The Bear" (Sections 4-5); Buell, "Modernization and the Claims of the Natural World" (PC) Response Paper Topic: What does Section 5 add to the narrative that precedes it? Why, that is, is it necessary to complete Faulkner's tale? November 23 -- Faulker, "Delta Autumn"; Aldo Leopold, The Land Ethic" (PC) Response Paper Topic: How does "Delta Autumn" alter or reinforce your sene of Ike as a character? November 25 -- Thanksgiving Holiday: No Class November 1 2004, 9:47 AM Reading for 11/9/04 Faulkner, "The Bear" (sections 1-3) Guha, Chapter 3 Response Paper Topic: What is Ike's ethos of nature, that is, what things is he supposed to learn (about nature, about himself, about society) from his time spent in the woods? November 11: Veterans' Day, No Class October 26 2004, 8:17 AM Reading for 11/02/04 Willliam Wordsworth, "Preface" and selected poems (handout)--please pick up a copy of "Tintern Abbey" at the Comp Lit Department offices, if you don't have one, and read that INSTEAD of the Intimations Ode in the handout. Ramachandra Guha, Chapter 2 Response Paper Topic: Find and discuss a key passage in the Preface (1-2 paragraphs), one that seems to you to bear in the most interesting way upon Wordsworth's view of nature and/or human nature. Reading for 11/04/04 Rousseau, Reveries (especially Promenades 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10) Michael Branch, "Indexing American Possibilities" (ER, 282-302); Jonathan Bate, The Song of the Earth (Chapter 2, PC) Response Paper Topic: How would you describe Rousseau's mode(s) of engagement with nature? What does nature mean to him, what is it for? October 18 2004, 12:04 PM Reading for 10/19/04-10/28/04 Robinson Crusoe (Norton Critical Edition): 10/19/04--pp. 1-76 (also Lynn White essay in The Ecocriticism Reader) 10/21/04--pp. 76-142 (also Christopher Manes essay in EC) 10/26/04--pp. 142-79 10/28/04--pp. 180-220 Response Paper Topic for 10/28: What do you make of the end of the novel--i.e., how Crusoe gets off the island, and why, and events subsequent to that? Those doing Option A (short papers) should review the critical essays in the back of the Norton Edition by Watt, Hunter, Richetti, Damrosch, McKeon and Flynn. Pairs for the collaborative paper should be set up and choice of secondary essay on which to write should be made by 10/26. Response Paper for 10/19: Open topic Response Paper for 10/21: In the period of time covered by this section of the text (years 2-24), does Crusoe adjust to and fully accept his fate on the island? Your evidence for whichever answer you pick?	Course Syllabus
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