LIT 366 Writing Nature: Literature and Ecology

3 hours 

Is there a connection between literature and nature, between texts and the environment? Can literature play a role in countering an escalating, man-made environmental crisis that threatens to make large parts of the globe uninhabitable in the relatively near future? To answer such questions, we will read a series of literary texts - poems, short stories, essays, and novels - that explore our understanding of the relationship between human identity and the natural world. We will supplement our literary readings with texts by literary critics and environmentalists that will further help us to situate literature within the context of environmental concerns, such as climate change and wilderness preservation.