An introduction to the U.S. environmental imagination from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854) through Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) up to Warner Brothers’ film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). This course focuses on American representations of human impacts on the environment. We consider literary engagements with such issues as: the (im)possibility of representing nature; the integration of the human and the natural; the end of the world and the future of nature; cultural difference and environmental justice; environmental disasters; technology, development, and sustainability. Students will both gain familiarity with an important archive of literary responses to environmental crises and will develop their own ability to respond to current environmental issues. Course texts will include short fiction, novels, non-fiction, poems, and films.
Environmental Literature
ENGL-1230-001
MWFÌý10:00 AM - 10:50 AM
Grading Basis:ÌýLetter Grade
Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language