Course Description
Students study literary texts about nature (plant, marine, mineral, and non-human animal life) in order to deepen students comprehension of the natural world and the way humans have engaged with the natural world through literature.
Athena Title
Literature Natural World
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 3835S
Prerequisite
ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or ENGL 1050H or ENGL 1060H
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will analyze human engagement with the natural world by reading and writing about literature (poems, drama, fiction, belles-lettres) about the natural world. Students will become skilled at raising and discussing (in both written and oral forms) critical questions prompted by this literature. They will learn to read closely and think critically, write stylistically sound prose, and craft an argument grounded in textual evidence.
Topical Outline
Since individual texts and topics will vary from year to year and instructor to instructor, this outline is just a sample: Unit 1: What are plants? (3 weeks) Readings from: Tom Michaels, The Science of Plants (open-access); Camille Dungy, ed., Black Nature; James Baldwin, ed., Six Centuries of English Poetry (open-access) Unit 2: What are trees? (2 weeks) Readings from: Jacob Levison, Studies of Trees (open-access); John Evelyn, Sylva (open-access); Richard Powers, The Overstory (very long book; will read over the course of the semester) Unit 3: What are animals? (2 weeks) Readings from: E. Connolly, Introduction to Zoology (open-access lecture notes and illustrations); Edmund Topsell, The Historie of Four-footed Beasts and The Historie of Serpents Unit 4: What are stones? (2 weeks) Readings from: N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season trilogy; Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Stone; Johnson, Affolter, et al., Introduction to Geology (open-access) Unit 5: What is “cultivated” land, and what is “wilderness”? (3 weeks) Readings from: Francis Bacon, Essays (open-access); Walter Ralegh, Description of Guiana (open-access); Edmund Spenser, View of the Present State of Ireland (open-access); James Oglethorpe, “Some Account of the Design of the Trustees for Establishing Colonies in Georgia” (open-access); Andrew Millison, Introduction to Permaculture (open-access)