ENGL 736 (01) - Environmental Theory

Environmental Theory

Durham   Liberal Arts :: English
Credits: 4.0
Term: Spring 2020 - Full Term (01/21/2020 - 05/04/2020)
Grade Mode: Letter Grading
Class Size:   25  
CRN: 56547
Theoretical approaches to nature writing. Topics vary but may include eco-memoirs, environmental rhetoric, native peoples and the land, land and national identity, animals in literature, and environmental activist non-fiction. May be repeated for credit if topic differs.
Section Comments: In Spring 2020, this course satisfies the DH requirement for TBD majors.
Repeat Rule: May be repeated for a maximum of 8 credits.
Only listed campus in section: Durham, Manchester
Classes not allowed in section: Freshman
Attributes: Writing Intensive Course
Instructors: STAFF

Times & Locations

Start Date End Date Days Time Location
1/21/2020 5/4/2020 TR 9:40am - 11:00am HS 240
Additional Course Details: 

ENGL 736 Environmental TheoryHow 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.