ENG 231-01 - American Literary Traditions III

4 credits Fall

“Slow Violence, Slow Hope: Environmental Literatures from Silent Spring to Standing Rock.” This course surveys environmental literature in the United States from the 20th and 21st centuries, with special focus on environmental health and social justice. Reading a wide array of literary forms, we will consider how writers and activists can help us apprehend imaginatively what the scholar Rob Nixon calls “slow violence”-a concept describing the gradual, delayed, almost invisible nature of much environmental damage. We will also search for imaginative works that tell untold stories of quiet, slow, but positive environmental change, hopeful narratives as alternatives to stories of decline. We will read different kinds of witnessing to help us think creatively and act courageously, including key works by Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit, Octavia E. Butler, Omar El Akkad, Andreas Malm, and Layli Long Soldier. In addition to studying ecocritical approaches to literature, there will be opportunities to create literary journalism and personal essays, and field trips to local natural areas to put nature writing into practice.

Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors, with grade S, C, or better; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121, with grade S, C, or better, or third-year standing.
Instructor: Phan