ENGL 1005 Literature: A Global Perspective - Week 8 Review

Agenda Overview

• Housekeeping
• Nature and Environmental Writing
• Close Reading: Terese Mason Pierre’s “We Will Tell Them…”
• Personal Essay Exploration
• Close Reading: Carrianne Leung’s “Writing in Dangerous Times”

Nature and Environmental Writing

• Definition and Importance:

  • Explores the relationship between the natural world and human experience.
  • Makes ethical claims about how humans interact with nature.
  • Engages readers sensorially through evocative language.

• Characteristics:

  • Focus on environmental subject matter.
  • Explores the dynamic relationship between humanity and the natural world.

• Setting:

  • A key component that shapes narrative and character experience.
  • Influences characters emotionally, physically, and psychologically.

Terese Mason Pierre

• Background:

  • A writer and editor recognized for contributions to literary journals.
  • Nominated for several awards, including the bpNichol Chapbook Award.
  • Upcoming book: Myth.

• Analysis of “We Will Tell Them of Our Dominion”:

  • Unique voice using first-person plural perspective.
  • Follows an arc from despair due to ecological crises to a note of hope.
  • Key Literary Terms:
  • Synecdoche: A part represents the whole (explored in the poem).
  • Volta: A shift in thought/emotion in poetry.

Key Extracts from the Poem:

• Stanza I:
  • Emphasizes the environmental decline (green turning brown, plastic islands).
  • Establishes the seriousness of the ecological issues.
• Stanza II:
  • Discusses corporate greed and childhood trauma linked to environmental degradation.
• Stanza III:
  • Addresses collective emotional responses to environmental issues.
• Stanza IV:
  • Highlights protests and societal unrest tied to ecological crises.
• Stanza V:
  • Envisions a hopeful future despite grim realities, with references to regeneration and understanding the interconnectedness of life.

Carrianne Leung

• Background:

  • Fiction writer and educator with works like The Wondrous Woo and That Time I Loved You.

• Personal Essay Genre:

  • Originates from personal experiences; explores memories and current events.
  • Informative, exploratory, with a personal touch (Burroway’s and Gutkin’s views).

Activist Writing

• Definition of Activism:
  • Campaigning for political and social change.
• Activist Writer Role:
  • Uses writing as a tool to promote activism.

Leung's Perspective on Writing

• On the Importance of Attention:
  • Writers must observe the world with urgency.
• Language and Violence:
  • Writing is both craft and ethical responsibility.
• Archiving and Witnessing:
  • Writers must document and create archives even amid uncertainty.
• Relationships:
  • Emphasizes the importance of fostering connections over merely being good.
• Endings and Futures:
  • Addresses humanity's wounds and encourages active engagement with the world's injustices.

The Activist Writer

• Characteristics:
  • Engages with and documents social turmoil.
  • Understands that craft is inherently political.
  • Aims for transformation rather than nostalgia for safety.
  • Courageous in confronting dangerous times while documenting ecological crises.