in class notes

1stday questions

  • environment- nature, climate change, plants, air, sky, etc

  • literature- books, magazines, media, public outreach.

  • connection- our opinionas about/ actions to protect the environment stem from how theyre discussed in literature

  • represetnation of environment through literature over time- how,when we talk about it, to what effect.

  • environmental humanities vs environmental science.

biocentrism

nature writing

what exams are on: identifying major passages and major ideas from readings. explaining them in light of context***

notes:

  • skip quotes

  • jot terms and definitions, concepts.

1/28

  • environment- someones surroundings. built environment as well as natural world.

  • environmentalism- trying to counter human exploitation of natural aspects of an environment.

  • ecocriticism- study of narratives about nature culture and the interrelationships between them, their origins, and the effects theyve had.

  • literary environmentalism treates environment not as a setting, scenery, or backdrop but a subject and a character.

    • part of the process where space (territory) becomes place (personally or culturally meaningful). makes the environment meaningful.

    • also an argument.

      • of aesthetics (beauty of nature and a pure environment),

      • of intrinsic worth (more important that other creatures have the right to live and self determine their lives without human interference)

      • or utility (importance of nature as a means to end human survival and flourishing if we arent careful).

so what?

  • nature has many different meanings in popular, political, and scientific culture. means different things depending on who’s doing the talking. where does it come from, what are they tryingto todo?

  • nature/culture has historically held a dualism. to promote,maintain, or justify social inequalities. this dualism has made anthropocentric environmental damage possible to begin with.

    • dualism- 2 things held together in comparison to eachother.

    • anthropocentric- only relating to human beings that anything else has value.

provocations

  • representations of nature/environment structure our social world BECAUSE social politics rest on and inform what is natural/not.

  • nature is never purely natural. impossible to understand environment without social tools like language, scientific measurement and art. WHICH CHANGE OVER TIME.

whose fault?

  • anthropocene- all humans are equally repsonsible

  • petrolcene- fossil fuel dependance and thus global north is most responsible

  • capitalocene- profit motive is most responsible

  • plantationocene- human exploitation ins most responsible.

mammal naming: science and social convention mutually inform eachother. trying to inform social life (womens roles) in scientific name of mammals.

social construct: we have to make sense of them. they are mediated by culture.

  • scientific knowledge is a social construct.its NOT nature communicating directly with us about facts. its a human perspective on it.

reading literature- unfolding an accordian. big ideas on first glance, then go more in depth.

kimmer- potawatomi author.

paradigm- a conventional way of or model for doing somehting.

four for this class

  • wilderness. around 1850

  • ecology. around 1962

  • environmental justice. around 1980

  • climate. around 1992

within this

  • formal analysis: structure/style of text

  • historical/contextual analysis: interpretation of ideas and events that informed the texts meaning.

  • how can one represent the environment realistically? historical factors main cause of differences in answer across paradigms.

special topics

  • W10 waste, food and agriculture

  • W14 nonhuman perspectives. energy, and AI

important genres

  • nature writing (w3-7)

  • ecopoetry (5&10)

  • cli-fi (11-14)

*american nature writing

genre- conventional category of artistic composition. characterized by conssisten characteristics in form.

background- natural history essay: categorized native species and resources for the betterment of mankind. followed enlightenment principles. took forms of travelogue or agrarian missive.

  • pastoral. romanticizes farm life.

romantixism

  • pastoralized rejefction of modernity.

    • modernity (contemporary mode of socioeconomic organization and tochnological ability to distinguish from prior simpler ways

    • primitivisim- appeal/commitment to returning to simplicity of the past. better that way.

*trancendentalism

thoreau- main inspiration of mlk and ghandi

transcendentalist romanticism in walking. praises authenticity applying to humans and the earth

how does he describe qualities of wilderness?

  • an understanding of environment. paradigm in its representation. conceptual division between civilization (over here$ and nature (over there) with wilderness being over there.

  • before enlightenment, nature was dangerous feared and conquered

  • makes a temporal an spacial distinction.

  • “in wilderness is the preservation of the world”

fast fwd 50 years

  • alienation to the industrial era.

  • wilderness recreation takes off

  • environmentalism as practical, but also nationalistic.

  • conservation. protecting natural spaces for future human ise

    • baseline for modern policy. only important in relation to humans

  • preservation. protecting natural spaces in and of itself.

    • model for natural parks. pristine without humans. human presence disrupts environment.

muir champion of preservation. direct hand in creation of many national parks.

qualities of his writing-

  • physical scale, size, distance.

  • sense of wonder, sublime. ethereal connection.

  • elegy as form. past, current, or future passing of something is lamented.

goal: encourage people to preserve it. uses religion to convince.

nature writing: amerian non fictional writing focused on the wild.

religious and environmental imagery in 19th century rly linked

gestures to unmediated observation and description. real rathr than artifical.

us is figured as more a natual or authentic nation

2/4

timeline of shift in opinion:

  1. (start) biblical fear,

  2. romantic reversal

  3. frontier expands (manifest destiny)

  4. the frontier closes (MD ends)

  5. wilderness set aside, sublime encounters “domesticated”

gendered terms in environmentalism- reinforces sexism and environmental abuse.

land as woman trope. mother earth & virgin wilderness.

  • ME: either nourishes/protects or witholding/punishment.

    • encourages stance that earth always provides, is obligated to no matter how much children take/dont give back

  • VW: offers heself to masculine use. there for the taking. mutually reinforces female and landscape passivity and indenture.

presence/history of indigenous americans UNDERMINES this notion.

madison grant- hitlers greatest inspiration.

  • master race of plants. reason for preservation. same rhetoric but directed at plants. eugenics.

  • who counts/ doesnt? who gets to decide?

extreme wilderness logic- nihlism “the only way to save nature is to kill ourselves

covid being earths vaccine, people dying- less impact on earth. humans as plague.

6 complications/contradictions review **refer to slides 2/4

  • social constructions of wilderness undermines idea of unmediated access to nature

  • those who work with the land have little reason to view it sa nature separate from themselves

  • land as woman idea historically mutually reinforced sexism and ecological abuse

  • presence and history of native americans undermines notionof unspoiled american wilderness

  • science of eugenics established an environmentalist relationship between social and natural purity

  • logic of wilderness taken to extreme can end in nihilism

wilderness narratives

  • ignores people in the americas at time of colonization

  • reinforces sexist stereotypes

  • makes an excuse to ignore enviro and othe issues ‘at home.’

2/9

kimmerer pecans

  • nature isnt an opject or separate sphere, but active subject

  • personification- human characteristics to nonhuman

  • kinship- shared characteristic sand origins which articulation establishes recipriocal relationships

private wealth vs reciprocity

  • potawatomi trail of death 1838 from twin lakes indiana to osawtomi kansas

  • dawes general alottment act

  • boarding school system

  • termination (1940-60) and relocation (1956)

  • indigenous systems of reciprocity- theyre noted as closer to the earth

ecological indian stereotpye (myth)

  • closer to nature, stronger/nuanced relationships w earth.

  • infantilizes them as maintaining a strict nature/culture dualism that applies to ppl and environments.

  • closer to the land because theyre not civilized.

  • reviles native ppl when they dont behave as desired or expected.

  • encourages neglect of actual enviro issues faced by indigenous communities

reality- indigenous environmentalism through oral tradition

  • oral tradition creates relationship with/understanding of environment (bad times and good). changes over time based on new attitudes and how ppl do/should live

  • impossible to universalize native experience/relationships w environment.

ontology and epistemology

what is the world?

how do we know the world? through what means?

thorou muir and kimmerer all answering ontological argument, how humans/nature interact.

T and M- separate sphere, unmediated access

kimmerer- kinship structure, through storytelling itself. i

nature writing tension betweeen claiming to know nature through empirical obsercation or spirituatity (unmediated) ir agknowledging that one does and can only know nature thorugh stories we tell about it (indirectly, thorugh the mediation of culture)

not cronin or clarke. only literary works. know key concepts and historical events. cite which reading we used to discuss it.

thoreau muir kimmerer white lanem. wilderness ideal** carson

environmental arguments can’t rest on ecological science alone. require ethical positions and normative values.

lynn keller.

  • nature poetry. continuation of romanticism. objective observation

  • ecopoetry. emphasis on every day, not sublime/romantic interactions. new ways of representing complexity.

    • ex 1. built environment in snyders night herons

    • ex 2. relational networks in snyders the uses of light

    • ex 3. sustainability practices in snyders control burn

    • ex 4. alternative spiritualities in snyders no matter never mind

    • ex 5. spell against demons

counterculture protests came to a head in 1970, earth day. heavily fought over.

started modern enviro movement with heklping daily citizens understand impact.

carson made possible the widespread understanding that environmental harm impacts us.

appeal to liberation through bioregionalism - communities of people should be specific based on where they are. different needs, adapt accordingly (cascadium movement- secede from us)

and universalism- all peoples experience the world the same way. conflicts with our previous texts, snyder is bringing it back

preservation vs conservatism

romanticism vs bioregionalism

ontology vs epistomology

nature writing vs eco poetry

anthropocentrism

wilderness perspective vs

cheat sheet:

  • summary of sources. authors titles themes quick recap. date of publication and historical context

  • class core concepts, sources they relate/apply to

  • contradictions

heuristics- words that help us make sense of patterns. cant touch or feel (liberal, conservative)

edward abbey- MISANTHROPY

  • complexity and dedication to more-than-human community and liberated authenticity inherited from ecological science and politics (eco)

  • but also retreat, sublime experience, and appeals to purity consistent with the wilderness paradigm (wilderness)

  • **presenting wilderness ideas, saying in ecological terms.

terry tempest williams**: refuge and unnatural history of famiily and place

concepts-

  • pollution, people treated as “virtual uninhabitants”

  • some people suffer more than others, if others even face ti at all

  • unequal effects are hard to represent. instances of slow violence