Environmental Theory
Term: Spring 2020 - Full Term (01/21/2020 - 05/04/2020)
Grade Mode: Letter Grading
CRN: 56547
Times & Locations
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
1/21/2020 | 5/4/2020 | TR | 9:40am - 11:00am | HS 240 |
How can we talk about environmental crisis? What words can we use to represent the natural world—and human interactions with it? Is it possible to describe nature without cultural projections? How can language change vision, policy, action? In this new course, we will grapple with the urgent need to articulate environmental issues by reading contemporary critics who are inventing vocabularies to do so, such as Rob Nixon on “slow violence,” Stacy Alaimo on “trans-corporeality,” and Jane Bennett on “vital materiality.” We’ll also read 19th-21st century nature writers who write about different environments from different perspectives, shaped in part by race, gender, indigeneity, and class: Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Mary Austin, Rachel Carson, Eddy Harris, Barry Lopez, Lisa Hogan, and Evelyn White. We’ll read ecocriticism by Carolyn Merchant, Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Bruno Latour, and Kimberly Ruffin. We’ll explore ecofeminism, environmental justice, postcolonial ecology, and the concept of the Anthropocene. Students taking this class for Women’s Studies credit will write papers that focus on gender and the environment. Writing intensive.
Satisfies a post-1800 literature requirement for English majors.
In spring 2020, this class fulfills a DH requirement for the TBD major.