humcore midterm

environmental humanities

a branch of humanistic inquiry that situates human life within the context of a broader ecosystem

environment

to "surround" or to "encircle"

binary thinking

organizing into opposites. oversimplifying world they are meant to describe, each opposite relies on the other for meaning

naturalization

when ideas that were created by people or cultures begin to feel natural, like they are just a product of the world

more-than-human

a world that exceeds and extends beyond the human/human experience, doesn't diminish/negate it (Like non-human)

anthropocentrism

human-centered

biocentrism

humans are one species among many

ecology

the branch of science that studies how organisms interact with each other and their physical surroundings-- the study of any intricate, interconnected system

Anthropocene

human-era, humans are changing the planet via ways only seen by nature in the past. overlooks that not all humans are creating this change

nature narratives

stories that fundamentally make up the western idea of nature (something separate from humanity, something to be studied/controlled)

contingent

dependent on or determined by conditions, rather than being necessary or inevitable

tentacular thinking

donna haraway

concept that challenges binary thinking/hierarchial ways of understanding the world

touching, feeling, and connecting rather than looking at something from a distance (making points of connection)-- heal our relationship with environment

speculative fabulation

a kind of storytelling that, similar to science fiction, explores alternative realties and challenge existing norms to cultivate new ways of thinking

interrogate invisible assumptions that make up our daily lives

cosmology

story about origins

skywoman

illustrates reciprocal relationships between humans and more-than-humans (die trying to get her clay, she gives back via land + food)

meant to juxtapose genesis

genesis

Eve is exiled, antagonism between humans and the rest of creation

Childbirth is painful, hard work is needed in order to eat

Human beings have to fight against nature, while still being their masters- Adam giving animals their names

human exceptionalism

the idea that humans (being made in God's image) are given the right to do whatever they want with the rest of nature

led to resource extraction, justifies factory farming, ideas of hierarchy

organic model

worldview that understood Earth + larger cosmos as a living organism composed of many parts that are interdependent on one another (also feminized)

Both the person and the universe were thought to have soul (created kinship)

Gaia/Mother Earth

Natura (medieval Goddess): God's representative, maintains what God first made

francis bacon

nature is duplicit, hiding resources and knowledge from men, science (male) will make nature (female) its slave

Merge of gender, science, and discovery

the green man

(pagan, preface Christianity): prominent during Medieval Times (churches)

Depict human faces erupting with plant life (vines, leaves, fruits)

Could be interpreted as signs as renewal, unruliness of nature (futility of human efforts to control it)

hybridity

a blend of diverse elements

Dwell in liminal spaces (the in-between, the boundaries)

"Half-giant", "handsome", "slender..sleek",

Ermine = symbol of royalty

medieval romance

roman referring to Romance languages opposed to Latin

Chivalric Romance: knights on quests, Arthurian romance

Developed in Europe as entertainment for aristocratic audiences, especially women (tend to feature female characters- IRL female nobility could sponsor poets)

Feature marvels, supernatural events, love, courtly virtues

stock

main section of each stanza, consisting of the longer lines. length of stock can vary, do not rhyme but feature alliteration

bob

short two-syllable line that comes after the stock

wheel

consists of four longer lines following the bob, follow alliterative pattern (with bob, rhyme scheme ABABA)

new materialism

a field of study that challenges the traditional separation between mind and better by emphasizing the agency, vitality, and interconnectedness of all material entiteis-- both living and non-living-- in constituting the world

the food we eat, commodities (oil, electricity), storms, metals

all have the capacity to impede or block the will and designs of humans, but also have forces of their own

assemblage

enables us to see how human and more-than-human entities act together and share responsibility

buffered self

people see themselves differently after Enlightenment

think of yourself as sealed off from threats and natural/supernatural world

immunity from external forces

porous self

open, vulnerable to natural/supernatural influences

precarity

dependent on unknown conditions or chance circumstances, characterized by a lack of security or stability

karen barad

entangled is to lack an independent, self-contained existence, existence is not an individual affair

if you exist, you are entangled

Anna tsing

precarity is being vulnerable, unpredictable encounters transform us-- not in control

being vulnerable isn't a choice we make, but whether we like it or not we are vulnerable

ontological vulnerability

fundamental condition of all mortal beings

artificial vulnerability

bias, discrimination, violence

conventions of medieval romance

Fictions of female agency: courtly ladies appear powerful (inspiring deeds, granting/withholding favor) but operate within patriarchal constraints

Love outside marriage: "courtly love" typically extramarital since noble marriages were arranged for political/economic reasons, not love

Competing loyalties: characters navigate conflicting commitments to lords, ladies and Christian values

Religious tension: courtly love functions as secular "religion" but conflicts with christian doctrine and ideals of purity

dark ecology

pay attention to negative emotions

ecofeminism

understanding relational dynamics that dark ecology exposes

parallels between domination of women + nature, structurally linked

Men seek to dominate women + nature because of a psychological reason: denial of a part of themselves

Women are associated with flesh, the body's cycles: birth, blood, death

Unwanted reminders of human vulnerability and mortality

Culture: the realm that transcends bodily limits (architecture = symbols of imagined transcendence over nature's cycles)

Timothy morton

environmental rhetoric os too positive/"healthy", dark ecology puts hesitation/thoughtfulness back into ecological thinking

the uncanny

something strange is also weirdly familiar

ecological self

a persons identity expands past themselves and includes their natural ecosystem

Aristotle thoughts on nature

women provide passive material of reproduction-- matter-- while the man provides the active, form-giving principle or soul

affinity ecofeminists

see value in associating women with nature

social ecofeminists

argue that associating women with nature has chiefly been used to justify domination

the aenied

written by the poet virgil

set during trojan war and its aftermath

Aeneas journeys westward to found what becomes the roman empire

serves as foundational myth for Roman Empire

translatio imperii

history is an unbroken, linear succession of supreme imperial power moving from one great empire or civilization to the next, rather than ending in decline and fall

homosociality

social bonding between members of the same gender that may exclude the opposite gender

power structures that often privilege male relationships and networks

cultural practices that reinforce same gender solidarity and hierarchy

transcorpeality

human bodies are not discrete, self-contained, or autonomous fortresses. instead, human flesh or continuously crossed, built, and altered by the material environment

cognitive load

mental effort required during learning or problem solving

secondary sources

interpret original works, draw claims

humanistic research questions

how + why questions about what people think, do, and make

scholarly conversation

describe body of academic work on given topic

eco-criticism/eco-theory

nature itself has a history, culturally constructed idea

tertiary sources

compile and summarize secondary sources

ecological perspective

expand our sense of what nature includes

eco-criticism

how literature represents the environment

eco-racism

marginalized groups have been disproportionately affected

petroculture

social relationships involved in oil business

epistemology

branch of philosophy that studies the nature, origin, scope, and limits of human knowledge

rhetorical situation

speaker, message, purpose, audience

methodology

scholars in various disciplined approach analysis

digital literacy

how does technology use you

lateral reading

taking a look around the passage you are analyzing

formal features

how writing says what it says

assonance

repetition of similar vowel sounds

genre

categories we use to group together cultural objects that share a basic set of formal and thematic elements

taxonomy

science of classification

conventions

features and rules that frequently recur in a given genre

weird fiction

a story that has a supernatural element but does not fall into the category of traditional ghost story or Gothic tale. started after WWI, revival because of climate change