SS/C 219
9:30-10:50 a.m. TTh
Office: SS/C 208Q
Phone: 271-5967 
Email: kadkins@griffon.mwsc.edu
Office Hours: 11:00-11:50 a.m. MWF
             11:00-2:00 Th

Required textbooks and materials:
Anderson, Slovic and O'Grady, Literature and the Environment   (Addison-Wesley, 1999)
Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1994)
Cooper, James Fenimore, The Prairie, (Penguin Classics, 1987)
Griffith, Kelly, Writing Essays About Literature (HBJ, 1997)
Leopold, Aldo, A Sand County Almanac, (Ballantine, 1991)
Shakespeare, William, King Lear (Penguin, 1989)
Thoreau, Henry David, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover, 1993)
Thoreau, Henry David, Walden, (Vintage Books, 1991) 
A good hardbound dictionary and a good handbook
Spiral notebook for reading journal

Recommended resource:
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment maintains a web page at <www.asle.umn.edu> that includes information about the organization, a bibliography, information about other resources, and links to many related sites.
 

Writing assignments: There will be two major writing assignments. The first of these will be a nature essay based on your own observations. You should spend at least two hours (the more time you spend, the better your chances of finding something interesting to write about) in one place quietly observing the world around you and taking extensive notes. We will be reading examples of nature essays, and I will be discussing possible approaches to this genre in class. If your observations inspire you to further research (as it does for writers like Dillard and Thoreau) that is fine. We will discuss that possibility, too. But this is an essay, not a research paper.

The second major writing assignment will be an analysis of a literary work (or possibly works) we have read, using one of the “Cultural Commentary” pieces in Literature and the Environment as a springboard. You will relate the thesis of the commentary with a theme of the literary work, and comment on how the literary elements contribute to the development of that theme.

You will also be expected to write BRIEF essays about each of the major works. These essays will be no longer than one typed page or two handwritten pages and will take the form of an essay question response based on the reading and issues we have raised in class. You should plan on spending no longer that two hours on each of these essays.

Exams: The short essays and weekly quizzes and will take the place of a mid-term and an objective final exam. The quizzes may include definition of vocabulary words from Griffith and short questions based on reading or class discussion. The final exam will include two essay questions that call for responses like the brief essays written during the semester.These papers must be typed, following the guidelines for usage and format in Griffith, pp. 244-254. Papers with three spelling errors (or typos) will lose one letter grade. Papers turned in late, without an acceptable excuse, will lose one letter grade for each business day (Monday-Friday) they are late

Grades: Grades will be weighted as follows:

Absences: Students with three unexcused absences will have their grade lowered one letter. If you must miss class and you know in advance, please contact me. If you miss class on a quiz day, the quiz cannot be made up, but I will drop one quiz grade at the end of the semester.

Academic honesty: “Since honesty in the classroom is required, cheating, plagarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the college constitutes a violation.” Policy Guide II, B, C. In other words, the work you turn in should be your own.

Disabilities: Please let me know during the first week of class about any physical handicap or learning disability if you need special help or accommodation in order to do your best work.
 

Schedule of Assignments

     Bioregional quiz (Literature and the Environment 239)

Th Griffith, ch. 1, 2, 6

      Wordsworth, "The World is Too Much with Us" (L&E 355)

      Whitman, "I think I could turn and live with animals" (L&E 66)

      Ginsberg, "A Supermarket in California" (L&E 380)

      LeSuer, "Harvest" (L&E 381)

      Kaufman, "Confessions of a Developer" (L&E 413)

T   Griffith, ch. 3

      The Prairie (9-84)

      Quiz

Th  The Prairie (85-145)

T   The Prairie (146-242)

     Quiz

Th  The Prairie (243-306)

T   Prairie response paper assigned

    The Prairie (307-386) 

        Muir, "A Wind Storm in the Forests" (L&E 178)

    Quiz

Th  Convocation--NO CLASS

T   Nature Essay Assigned

     Griffith, ch. 5, 8, 9, 10 

     Oliver, "The Honey Tree" (L&E 3)

     Rogers, "Knot" (L&E 61)

     Walker, "We Alone" (L&E 376)

     Quiz

Th Griffith, ch. 12

     Nelson, "The Gifts" (L&E119)

     Thoreau, "Walking" (Essays, 49)

     Hoaglund, "Introduction" Walden (xi)

T  Walden, "Where I Lived and What I Lived for" (67)

         Meadows, "Living Lightly and Inconsistently on the Land" (L&E 377) 

    Walden, "Sounds" (91)

    Walden, "Solitude" (105)

         Kerouac, "Alone on a Mountaintop" (L&E 191)

     Quiz

Th Walden, "Visitors" (114)

          Sanders, "Buckeye" (L&E 290)

          White, "Black Women and the Wilderness" (L&E 316)

      Walden,"The Ponds" (141)

          Hogan, "What Holds the Water, What Holds the Light" (L&E 174)

          Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (L&E 168)

T   Walden, "Higher Laws" (170)

         Snyder, "Song of the Taste" (L&E 16)

     Walden, "Brute Neighbors" (181)

          Dillard, "Living Like Weasels" (L&E 4)

      Walden, "House Warming" (192)

          Houston, "A Blizzard Under a Blue Sky" (L&E 184)

      Quiz

Th  Walden response paper assigned

      Walden, "Winter Animals" (218)

      Walden, "The Pond in Winter" (227)

          Stevens, "The Snow Man" (L&E 188)

          Ortiz, "Forever" (L&E 189)

      Walden, "Spring" (241)

      Walden, "Conclusion" (241)

          Clifton, "Sonora Desert Poem" (L&E 176)

T  Sand County Almanac (3-43)

         Hemingway, "Fight with a 20-Pound Trout" (L&E 258)

         Bishop, "The Fish" (L&E 160)

     Quiz

Th Nature Essay Due

     SCA (44-98)

     SCA, "Thinking Like a Mountain" (137)

         Frost, "The Gift Outright" (L&E 295)

         Dickey, "A Dog Sleeping on My Feet" (L&E 116)

T   SCA response paper assigned

     SCA, "The Land Ethic" (237-263)

     SCA, "Wilderness" (264-279)

     SCA, "Conservation Esthetic" (280-295)

         Piercy, "Sand Roads: The Development" (L&E 403)

         Stegner, "Wilderness Letter" (L&E 442)

     Quiz

Th Griffith, Ch. 4

     King Lear, Act I

T  King Lear, Act II

     Quiz

Th King Lear, Act III

T  Analysis paper assigned

    King Lear, Act IV
    Quiz

Th Lear response paper assigned

     King Lear, Act V

T  London, "To Build a Fire" (L&E 31)

     Houston, "Rock Garden" (L&E 277)

     Quiz

Th Gore, "Introduction" (Silent Spring, xv)

     Silent Spring, ch 1-4

T  SS ch 5-8

     Quiz

Th SS ch 9-13

T  SS response paper assigned

     SS ch 14-17

     Quiz

Th Thanksgiving Break

T  Analysis paper due

    Levertov, "Come Into Animal Presence" (L&E 63)

    Wright, "A Blessing" (L&E 64)

    Oates, "The Buck" (L&E 130)

    Jewett, "A White Heron" (L&E 150)

    Anaya, "Devil Deer" (L&E 486)

     Quiz

Th Review for final exam