AJ55011 Topics in Literature: North American Literary Landscapes

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2011
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 10 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. et Mgr. Kateřina Prajznerová, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
each even Friday 9:10–10:45 G31
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course focuses on North American environmental literature, with a particular emphasis on contemporary fiction. The readings cover a variety of geo-cultural landscapes throughout Canada and the US. Among the questions that this course poses are the following: How does our view of the nonhuman world affect our reading of literature? How does our view of literature affect our reading of the nonhuman world? What is the relation between environmental experience and literary representation of the environment? How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? How have North American writers responded to their landscapes? How do their responses negotiate the interplay of the cultural and natural histories of North America? To address these and other related issues, we will discuss works by Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, Linda Hogan, Ron Rash, and Thomas Wharton.
The aims of the course include to prepare students to read critically; analyze primary as well as secondary texts both orally and in writing; conduct interdisciplinary research in the fields of literature and environmental studies.
Syllabus
  • Schedule:
  • Week 1: Orientation
  • Week 2: Class session I on Oct. 7, introduction, course policies and assignments
  • Unit A: Reading the North
  • Week 3: Oct. 14
  • Core text: Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing.
  • Supplementary text: Glotfelty, Cheryll. “Introduction.” xv-xxxvii.
  • Week 4: Oct. 21
  • Core text: Hogan, Linda. Solar Storms.
  • Supplementary text: Snyder, Gary. “Coming into the Watershed.” 219-35.
  • Class session II on Friday, Oct. 21; response paper 1 due in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Oct. 18. (Comments due in ELF by midnight on Wednesday, Oct. 19).
  • Unit B: Reading the Southeast
  • Week 5: Oct. 28
  • Core text: Conroy, Pat. The Prince of Tides.
  • Supplementary text: Welty, Eudora. “Place in Fiction.” 537-48.
  • Response paper 2 due in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Oct. 25. (Comments due in ELF by midnight Wednesday Oct. 26).
  • Week 6: Nov. 4
  • Core text: Rash, Ron. Saints at the River.
  • Supplementary text: Kowalewski, Michael. “Contemporary Regionalism.” 7-24.
  • Class session III on Friday, Nov. 4; response paper 3 due in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 1. (Comments due in ELF by midnight Wednesday Nov. 2).
  • Unit C: Reading the Far West
  • Week 7: Nov. 11
  • Core text: Wharton, Thomas. Icefields.
  • Supplementary text: Lopez, Barry. “Landscape and Narrative.” 61-71.
  • Response paper 4 due in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 8. (Comments due in ELF by midnight Wednesday Nov. 9).
  • Week 8: Nov. 18
  • Core text: Anderson-Dargatz, Gail. A Recipe for Bees.
  • Supplementary text: Aberley, Doug. “Interpreting Bioregionalism: A Story from Many Voices.”
  • Response paper due in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 15. (Comments due in ELF by midnight on Wednesday Nov. 16).
  • Week 9: Nov. 25
  • Work on your fieldwork project.
  • Week 10: Dec. 2
  • Work on your fieldwork project.
  • Supplementary text: Thomashow, Mitchell. “Toward a Cosmopolitan Bioregionalism.” 121-32.
  • Class session IV on Friday, Dec. 2; fieldwork project due in class.
  • Week 11: Dec. 9.
  • Work on your paper proposal and annotated bibliography.
  • Week 12: Dec. 16
  • Work on your paper proposal and annotated bibliography. Supplementary text: Buell, Lawrence. “Space, Place, and Imagination from Local to Global.”
  • Class session V on Friday, Dec. 16; research paper proposal and annotated bibliography due in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 13. (Comments due in ELF by midnight on Wednesday Dec. 14).
Literature
    required literature
  • Gail Anderson-Dargatz, A Recipe for Bees
  • Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
  • Linda Hogan, Solar Storms
  • Rash, Ron. Saints at the River.
  • Margaret Atwood, Surfacing
  • Thomas Wharton, Icefields
    recommended literature
  • Welty, Eudora. “Place in Fiction.” A Modern Southern Reader.
  • Aberley, Doug. “Interpreting Bioregionalism: A Story from Many Voices.” Bioregionalism.
  • Thomashow, Mitchell. “Toward a Cosmopolitan Bioregionalism.” Bioregionalism.
  • Buell, Lawrence. “Space, Place, and Imagination from Local to Global.” The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination.
  • Lopez, Barry. “Landscape and Narrative.” 1984. Crossing Open Ground.
  • Glotfelty, Cheryll. “Introduction.” The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology.
  • Kowalewski, Michael. “Contemporary Regionalism.” A Companion to Regional Literatures of America.
  • Snyder, Gary. “Coming into the Watershed.” A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds.
Teaching methods
Class sessions will include short presentations, team work, audio-visual learning, and class discussion.
Assessment methods
Assessment:
Participation: 10%
Response Papers: 30%
Fieldwork Project: 20%
Research Paper Proposal and Annotated Bibliography: 20%
Research Paper: 20%
Policies and other announcements:
Attendance: You are expected to come to class regularly. The five class sessions will be mainly seminar discussions and your active participation is crucial to the success of the course. If you must miss a class, please e-mail or talk with me as soon as possible. I will excuse your absence only if there is a medical or family emergency.
Assignments: Since your preparation prior to class sessions is crucial, I can only accept late assignments in cases of serious and documented emergencies. Please upload your written work to ELF by the date and time when the particular assignment is due and also bring along a hard copy to submit in class. Whenever possible, samples of the types of work expected in the course will be shared in advance. You must complete all the assignments in order to receive a final grade for the course. For more information on each assignment, please read the assignment guidelines. Do not hesitate to e-mail or stop by during office hours if you have any further questions.
Assignment guidelines:
Participation
You are expected to attend all class sessions, to have read the assigned readings for each week, and to actively participate in class discussion. Part of your participation will be measured by your discussion questions and commentary on fellow students’ Response Papers (see Response Papers, below).
Response Papers
Purpose: To read critically, notice details, take notes, make connections, return to key passages, gain a deeper appreciation of the core texts; to clearly formulate one’s own thoughts in writing; to get personalized feedback from the instructor; to be prepared to participate in class discussion.
Content: No research, “only” your own creative / critical thoughts, discoveries and opinions based on the core texts; close textual analysis; narrow focus (particular themes, images, narrative techniques, relationships, issues, contexts, and so on); at the end, include 2-3 discussion questions that stem from your Response Paper to be used in class.
Form: Approximately two pages (about 800 words); double-spaced; MLA format; title.
Style: Clear argumentation; careful organization (introduction, main body, conclusion); coherent paragraphs; integrated citations (of core texts/supplementary readings cited – no outside research required); academic language.
Due dates: Please upload your RP into the appropriate Echo Assignment page in ELF by midnight on the Tuesday before class (on Oct. 18, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, Nov. 8 and Nov. 15) and also bring along a hard copy to refer to and then submit in class.
Other: By midnight on the Wednesday before class (on Oct. 19, Oct. 26, Nov. 2, Nov. 9 and Nov. 16) you will need to have read at least two of your classmates’ Response Papers from ELF, and posted a comment in the Discussion Board (this counts toward your class participation grade).
Fieldwork Project
Purpose: To gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between people, place, and literature, by exploring a particular place of interest to you, preferably, though not necessarily, within the context of its bioregional networks; to integrate personal environmental experience with reading about the natural world.
Content: Either a primarily creative or critical approach to examining a place, based on first-hand experience, course texts, supplementary readings, and class discussions. You are encouraged, but not required, to develop concepts raised in one or more of your Response Papers as part of your Fieldwork Project.
Form: Open. Possible forms include, but are not limited to: 1) portfolio of related scholarly/creative work, with brief introduction; 2) photo-essay; 3) power-point/documentary/multi-media presentation; 4) website; 5) creative writing; 6) journal; 7) other alternative form approximating a ten-page report.
Style: Driven by form; clearly, some forms call for a more personal and/or informal style than is usual in academic discourse.
Due date: You will turn in your fieldwork project in class on Dec. 2. Paper Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
Purpose: To organize the results of your research; to articulate your main argument regarding a topic of your choice; to receive feedback from the instructor; to get ready to write the research paper.
Content: A concise introduction to your topic and your methodology/critical approach(es); a preliminary version of your main argument; an outline of structure; an annotated list of the primary as well as secondary sources you have consulted so far and plan to integrate into your paper.
Form: Title; abstract (about 250 words); a list of at least five principal sources (with complete bibliographical information and a five-sentence summary of each secondary source highlighting why it is useful to you); MLA format; double-spaced.
Style: Academic language.
Due date: Please upload your PP&AB into the appropriate Echo Assignment page in ELF by midnight on Tuesday Dec. 13. Other: By midnight on Wednesday Dec. 14 you will need to have read at least two of your classmates’ Paper Proposals from ELF, and posted a comment in the Discussion Board (this counts toward your class participation grade).
Research Paper
Purpose: To examine some aspect of North American environmental literature that interests you; to develop your ideas with the help of a variety of sources; to formulate an argument and support it by convincing evidence.
Content: Preferably, your paper will focus on one (or two or three) of the works we have studied. You may also discuss an author whose work we have not looked at but who is in some way connected to the issues we have covered. You may analyze various literary features (the use of imagery, narrative technique, etc.) through one critical approach or another, but I especially welcome interdisciplinary perspectives that in some way connect literature with history, ecology, and other fields. You are encouraged to draw on the themes that emerged (and re-emerged) in your response papers, your field-work project, and in class discussions during the semester.
Form: Eight to ten pages (about 3200 words), double-spaced; MLA format; endnotes or footnotes only for informative/explanatory notes, title.
Style: Strong, consistent argumentation; clear organization; coherent paragraphs; integrated references; academic language.
Due date: Please upload your paper into the appropriate Echo Assignment page in ELF by midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 3 (1st re-sit Jan. 17, 2nd re-sit Jan. 31).
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 5x2.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2007, Autumn 2009.
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