ENG 256 - Environmental Literature

Course Description

This course will explore the changing perceptions and definitions of wilderness and nature in American literature and culture. Students will read and discuss poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by American authors, including Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, Leopold, Austin, Carson, Stegner, Jeffers, Silko, Snyder, Oliver, Abbey, and Williams. We will also explore the interaction between literature and environmental activism, and consider the impact of nature and wildness on American art. Group 1 course.

Credit Hours

3

Contact Hours

3

Lecture Hours

3

Required Prerequisites

Placement into ENG 111

General Education Outcomes supported by this course

Communications - Direct, Critical Thinking - Direct

Other college designations supported by this course

Degree Req:Cultural Persp/Div, Infused: Writing Intensive

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge:
  • Interpret literary works through textual explication and analysis of literary elements/conventions of each genre.
  • Evaluate literary works through textual explication and analysis of literary elements/conventions of each genre.
Application:
  • Support critical claims with specific textual evidence and careful, well-articulated reasoning.
Integration:
  • Recognize matters of ethnicity and gender, relative to the cultural and historical contexts from which texts emerge.
  • Understand the theory of the social construction of reality and apply it to the changing perceptions of nature in Western culture.
Human Dimension:
  • Understand the relevance and cultural implication of literary texts across historical timespans.
  • See the world from other points of view.
Caring - Civic Learning:
  • Demonstrate an appreciation of literature relative to its geographical and historical context.
  • Recognize the significance of literary expression for human beings.
Learning How to Learn:
  • Recognize basic assumptions concerning the "nature of nature" embodied in various examples of nature or environmental writing (primarily in American literature) and be able to place these assumptions in the context of environmental history.