HU 132: M/W 2:30-3:50 (Spring 2004)
Instructor: Shealeen Meaney
shealeen@worldnet.att.net
HU390 / 442-4162
Office Hours: W/F 12:15-1:15
E-Reserves Code: “wilderness”
Regions of the Wild:
Nature, Nation, and Self in American Literature
“In Wildness is the preservation of the world”
– Henry David Thoreau
“A wilderness in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
-- Wilderness Act (1964)
“All good things are wild and free.”
-Henry David Thoreau
“Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men? And what multitudes there might be of them they knew not.”
-- William Bradford (Of Plymouth Plantation)
"Without enough wilderness America will change. Democracy, with its myriad personalities and increasing sophistication, must be fibred and vitalized by the regular contact with outdoor growths -- animals, trees, sun warmth, and free skies -- or it will dwindle and pale."
--Walt Whitman
Course Description:
Conflicting representations of “wilderness” circulate today in the cultural marketplace, from the nurturance of the new age “mother nature” to the desperate vigilance needed to outlive the “natural disasters” in the “Survival Guides” and “What Should You Do When?” series. This is unsurprising given that historically the wilderness has been cast as site of danger and awe, the domain of darkness and evil and yet also proof of the greatness of God and a site for spiritual healing and physical restoration. In colonial America, the “wildness” of the land was a matter of great anxiety and fear, but by the late 19th century, Americans were establishing the first “wild” national parks in the world, and to tour them was an act of vacationing patriotism. This prompts one to ask: How have we understood the wilderness in America, and how has this understanding shaped our national identity, ideologies, and literatures?
In this course we will explore various constructions of the “wilderness” as a region of American geography, ideology, and identity through the critical study of American literature and its representations of the natural world. We will examine the ways that America’s very first identification as a “wilderness” contributed to the production of popular ideologies of self-reliance and authentic selfhood that are still central to “American” culture. We will consider how treatments of wilderness and nature have reflected and produced dominant social relations and ideals of gender, class, and race in American cultural history, and how these treatments have transformed throughout the 20th Century.
Course Materials:
Required
An E-mail Account and Regular Computer Access
A Good, Critical Mind
Literature and Nature, Keegan and McKusick
The Great New Wilderness Debate, Caldicott and Nelson
Solar Storms, Linda Hogan
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett
** There will be additional texts placed with “E-reserves” in the U Albany library.
Recommended:
Wilderness and the American Mind, Roderick Nash
MLA Handbook, Sixth Edition
ALL books will be available at both Mary Jane Books and the U Albany bookstore.
Course Objectives and Critical Directions:
?To critically explore the archive of “wilderness” texts in the American literary tradition.
?To develop theories about the relationship between the natural world and “American” notions of nation and selfhood.
?To make connections between diverse “American” literary texts across history and geography.
?To consider the effects of popular literary styles, movements, and trends on the representation of nature.
?To consider the relationship between social movements, political change, and conceptualizations of the wild.
?To compare representations of the various geographical “regions” of the American wilderness in their generalities and specificities.
?To unearth and consider the connections between geography, politics, ideology and cultural representation.
?To produce critical texts which ask new questions about and offer new understandings of “The American Wilderness” and its representations.
Major Course Assignments:
** All written work must be typed (1” margins, double spaced, Times 12 font or equivalent), SECURELY STAPLED, and clearly marked with the author’s name.
In addition, all formal essays must follow MLA format for page set up, quotation, internal citation format and works cited page. No Exceptions.
Mid-Term Exam: (25 points)
Short Answer, Passage Identification, and Essay. Requires knowledge of relevant historical and social contexts, familiarity with course readings and concepts, and ability to employ critical terminology and synthesize literary materials and cultural theories.
Final Exam: (25 points)
See “Mid-Term” description.
Final Essay: (25 points)
8-10 page critical analysis of a literary text (subject to my approval) which foregrounds the American “Wilderness” as a location and / or subject of thematic significance. . Alternately, one wilderness region (for instance: the desert, the Appalachian Trail, the Adirondacks) can be examined across a pair or series of texts in relation to cultural and historical concepts of the course and research.
This essay should synthesize ideas from course discussion and readings, critical materials garnered from individual research, and an individual approach to literary analysis in its production of a critical reading of one particular representation of the American wilderness
Critical Responses, Presentation and Quizzes: (10 points total)
Quizzes
Absurd and annoying, but may be necessary to keep us all honest. Read critically and take notes and you will be fine. Frequency will depend upon apparent need. This is ultimately up to you!
Daily Writing Requirement:
Every class meeting you are required to bring to class one typed page-length response to the readings. Appropriate response material is not summary, but rather critical reflection on the ideas and passages of the text that are interesting to you, connections between the readings and other class materials, thoughts about how the week’s texts work together, questions about issues and representations that confuse or trouble you, etc… Ideally the ideas that emerge from these writings will not only help you be an active participant in class, but will get you thinking and writing toward your final essay as well. Rather than submitting these to me in hard copy form, you will post them on our Web CT page to offer a supplement to class discussion. You will be graded on the timeliness, frequency, and quality of your postings.
Participation: (15 points)
This is an upper-division English course and I expect that every student in the class to have not only the ability but also the desire to contribute to the development of the class’ ideas. You are expected to arrive having critically read, responded to, and prepared to discuss the assigned materials. It is not fair to the class community for students to be unprepared and unmotivated. By returning to this class after the “drop” date you have made a commitment to this community and you will be expected to constructively participate in it.
Presentation Component:
In addition to the daily writing requirement, each student will be assigned one class meeting for which they will be preparing a “superior critical response”. This means that along with an extensive critical response to the readings for that day, she should prepare a list of quotes and critical questions to guide class discussion. She will be a co-facilitator of discussion using these notes to open up discussion on her texts. She will use this opportunity to share her thoughts about the ideas and significance of the day’s readings in relation to other course materials, discussions, and ideas and ask questions to help others think critically about the readings. She will also submit a collection of the following materials via Web CT:
3 page critical response
List of Quotes
List of Questions
ENG374 / Regions of the Wild
A Partial Timeline
Some Important Moments in American Wilderness History
1612 – John Smith’s “Description of Virginia and Proceedings of the Colony” written; the text describes the geography of the “New World” and its wilderness.
1620 – Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum advocates observation and analysis of first hand experience as the keys to understanding nature.
1620 – The famed Plymouth Landing to be recounted in William Bradford’s journals which are ultimately published in 1856 under the title “Of Plymouth Plantation.”
1621 -- First Thanksgiving, at Plymouth.
1628 -- (May 1) Thomas Morton and colonists at Merrymount celebrate May Day by dancing around a maypole, which doesn’t sit well with the pilgrims. Capt. Miles Standish is sent to eradicate the settlement and Morton is sent back to England.
1676 – Mary Rowlandson’s capture by the Wampanoag; she subsequently writes her “captivity narrative.”
1700-1799 – “Age of Enlightenment”
1737 – Swedish Scientist Carolus Linnaeus devises a system of latin nomenclature with which to organize and catalogue the natural world.
1804 – Merriweather Lewis and William Clark set out on their famous expedition across the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. They return in 1806.
1832 –Artist George Catlin presents the idea that the US government should create nature preserves to protect “the wild freshness of man.”
1836 – Emerson publishes “Nature.”
1849 – California Gold Rush
1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden; or, Life in the Woods.
1859 – Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.”
1864 – President Lincoln signs the “Yosemite Bill” which marks the first act of land conservation on the part of a national government.
1869 – With the linking up of the Union and Pacific Railroads in Utah, Transcontinental Railroad service is established allowing cross country travel for the American public.
1883 – It is believed that the last major buffalo herd is destroyed.
1890 – Yosemite National Park Bill is passed by congress and signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison.
1892 – The Sierra Club is created by John Muir in an attempt to create and further the American public’s interests in and commitments to wilderness preservation.
1893 – At an American Historical Society meeting, Frederick Jackson Turner reads his famous paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” which declares that the frontier is closed.
1898 – Alaska / Yukon Territories Gold Rush
1903 – The first national wildlife refuge – Florida’s Pelican Island – is created by President Theodore Roosevelt.
1920 – Mass production of the Ford Roadster begins. Americans’ relationships with the land and mobility are significantly transformed .
1920’s – 30’s – The Appalachian National Scenic Trail between Springer Mountain (Georgia) and Mt. Katahdin (Maine) is established by hikers. In 1968 it becomes one of the original two trails of the “National Trail System” established by congress.
1962 – Silent Spring is published by Rachel Carson. The book is a wakeup call to Americans about the dangers presented to human life and wilderness by pesticides and other human produced contaminants.
1970 – Petrified Forest National Park becomes the first National Park to have a designated “wilderness area.” This is a controversial move for the NPS.
1970— National Environmental Policy Act.
1970 – The first “Earth Day” is held. The idea is created and promoted by Senator Gaylord Nelson.
1973 – Endangered Species Act.
1980 – The Alaska Lands Act is passed by Jimmy Carter which creates 10 new National Parks and 9 new Wildlife Refuges.
ENG374 / Regions of the Wild
Reading Schedule:
Please Note:
Read ALL selections by the assigned author unless I specify otherwise.
(L&N) = Literature and Nature
(GNWD) = The Great New Wilderness Debate
(CR) = Course Reserves
W 1/21: Syllabus & Introductions
M 1/26: Pilgrims, Puritans, and Savages / Bradford (L&N), Edwards(GNWD), Rowlandson (L&N), Denevan (GNWD)
W 1/28: Explorers and Naturalists / De Crevecoeur, Audobon, Lewis and Clark (L&N)
M 2/2: Romantics / Hawthorne (CR), Irving (L&N), Melville (L&N)
W 2/4: More Romantics, The Transcendentalists / Emerson (L&N)
M 2/9: More Romantics, The Transcendentalists / Thoreau (L&N) (GNWD) & Whitman (L&N)
W 2/11: Pioneers and Patriots / Cather (L&N), Cooper (L&N), Roosevelt (GNWD)
Charles Alexander Eastman (CR)
M 2/16: No Class / Break
W 2/18: Parks and Preservation / Muir (L&R) (GNWD), Luther Standing Bear (L&R), “The Wilderness Act” (GNWD), Leopold (GNWD) – possible TBA
M 2/23: Naturalists / Crane & London “Call of the Wild” & “To Build a Fire” (L&R)
W 2/25: Women’s Spaces / Austin (L&N & CR) , Bonnin (CR), Thaxter (L&N), & Jewett (L&N)
M 3/1: Women’s Spaces / Jewett, Country of the Pointed Firs
W 3/3: Scouts and Excursionists / TBA
M 3/8: Realism / Faulkner (L&N) & Steinbeck (L& N)
W 3/10: Mid-term (Turn toward Contemporary Directions)
M 3/15: Philosophical Meditations and Poetry /
Frost, Stevens, Roethke, Jeffers, Snyder (all selections from L&N) Snyder (GNWD)
W 3/17: Nature, Culture, and Class / Carson (L&N) , Williams (L&N), Silko (L&N) & White (CR)
M 3/22: The Contemporary Nature Essay / Dillard, Lopez, McPhee (All L&N) -- Paper Prospectus Due
W 3/24: The Civilized World / Kingsolver (L&N), Kingston (L&N), Price (CR)
M 3/29: Roots and Routes / Hogan, Solar Storms
W 3/31: Hogan, Solar Storms
M 4/5: No Class / Break
W 4/7: No Class / Break
M 4/12: No Class / Break
W 4/14: Talbot (GNWD) + TBA
M 4/19: The Authentic Self / Krakauer, Into the Wild
W 4/21: Krakauer, Into the Wild
M 4/26: Alienation and Anxiety / White (CR)
Time Permitting we will work with a Film Text: The Blair Witch Project -- Final Paper Due.
W 4/28: TBA
M 5/3: Last Day of Class
Please Note: This schedule is subject to change. I will be adding additional texts from GNWD during the second half of the semester after we begin to develop our interests as a class. In addition, snow days and other unforeseeable situations may require further reconfigurations.