Nature & Environmental Writing

This course will focus on the traditions of nature and environmental writing in the American context, with an emphasis on the social and cultural dynamics of the environment and environmental action. Among other questions, we will ask ourselves: How do class, gender, and race enter into the nexus of social interactions that shape our environment? What is the place of literature in community, literacy, and environmental activism? What are the connections between the ways we speak and write about the environment and our actions toward the environment? How does the wilderness concept affect the ways citizens have access to public spaces? We will consider the concept of nature as we move through the course, culminating (if you like) with some nature writing of your own. Readings may include Thoreau; Carson; Leopold; Kingsolver, and selections from Reading the Roots: American Nature Writing Before Walden; Colors of Nature; Lauret Savoy, Trace: Memory, History, and the American Landscape; and F. Marina Schauffler, Turning to Earth: Stories of Ecological Conversion.