ENG 232-01 - Traditions of Ethnic American Literature

4 credits (Fall)

The Colors of Nature: Race, Place, and the Environmental Imagination. This course will examine the centrality of nature and the environment in literature by ethnic American writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. We’ll consider how writers of color bear witness to the perceived and real ways in which nature and the environment are racialized in America, redefining and expanding our notions of “nature writing.” Our inquiry will be guided by underlying questions such as: How have representations of nature, land, or the environment communicated particular ideas about race and racial categories? How have Black, Native American, Latina/o and Asian American writers explored the constructions of race and nature in their literary and cultural productions? What is the place of joy, bewilderment, and wonder in landscapes defined by environmental racism and climate crisis? We’ll turn to 20th and 21st works of fiction, prose, essays, and graphic memoir by writers such as: Louise Erdrich, bell hooks, Miné Okubo, Francisco X. Alarcón, Camille T. Dungy, Arthur Sze, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ross Gay, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Francisco Cant , and Lauret Savoy.

Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Phan