MWF 9:00-9:50, Thomas 202
Professor: Dr. Bev Hogue
Office: 216-A Thomas Hall
Office Hours: MW 10 a.m. to noon and 3 to 4 p.m.; TTH 2 to 4 p.m.; F 10 a.m. to noon
Other hours available by appointment
e-mail: hogueb@marietta.edu
office telephone: x4657
website: www.marietta.edu/~hogueb
class e-mail list: 2008_FL_ENGL_255_01@marietta.edu
Course Description: English 255, Concepts of Nature, is a study of attitudes toward nature reflected in literary works representing a wide range of historical eras and cultures. Students will engage in close reading of literary texts, exploring cultural and historical contexts and the conventions of various genres. The course will also expose students to critical approaches to literature and to the critical thinking skills required to analyze the interrelationships between literature and nature. Further, doing research and writing about concepts of nature in literature will help students refine their communication skills and respond thoughtfully to various literary and cultural ideas about nature.
General Education: This course fulfills the Literature and Writing Proficiency requirements of the General Education Curriculum. In order to take this class, students must have passed WRIT 101 with at least a C-.
Course Objectives: At the conclusion of the course, students will
Expectations: This course depends upon class participation; therefore, students should:
Required Texts
Anderson, Lorraine, Scott Slovic, and John P. O’Grady, Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture, Longman; ISBN 978-0321011497
Melville, Herman, Moby Dick, Norton Critical Edition; ISBN 978-0393972832
Maclean, Norman, A River Runs Through It, U. Chicago Press; ISBN 978-0226500669
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, Anchor; ISBN 978-0385721677
Additional short readings available online or through electronic reserve.
Evaluation
Reading comments 100 points
Four short papers 400 points
Three exams 300 points
Grading Scale
A = 93-100 A- = 90-92 B+ = 88-89 B = 83-87 B- = 80-82
C+ = 78-79 C = 73-77 C- = 70-72 D+ = 68-69 D = 63-67 D- = 60-62
The A+ grade does not affect gpa and will be given only for extraordinary work.
The three exams may consist of a mixture of short-answer and essay questions.
Twenty-five times during the semester, you will send me a brief e-mail message (at least 250 words). These reading comments allow you to explore ideas related to class readings and their relationship to ideas about nature; you may wish to use these comments to raise questions, offer interpretations, make connections among various readings, or try out ideas for papers. (See assignment sheet for further details about content, evaluation, and deadlines.)
Each of the short papers (3-5 pages) will respond to a specific question related to the relationship between literature and nature. Short papers will require the submission of a draft and participation in peer review.
All written work must be typed/word processed, double-spaced, in black ink on white paper, with attention paid to spelling, grammar, and style. Late work will not be accepted except in rare unavoidable cases. Students are expected to produce original work for this course; papers written for other courses here or elsewhere are not acceptable.
Revision option: You may choose to revise any of the first three short papers and submit them for further consideration; however, your grade on that paper will not be increased by more than one letter grade, and revising a paper does not guarantee that it will qualify for an improved grade. Revised essays must be turned in no later than one week following the return of the graded paper, and the original graded paper must be turned in along with the revised version.
All written work must be typed/word processed, double-spaced, in black ink on white paper, with attention paid to spelling, grammar, and style. Late work will not be accepted except in rare unavoidable cases. Students are expected to produce original work for this course; papers written for other courses here or elsewhere are not acceptable.
Plagiarism occurs when a student represents someone else’s work as his or her own; it includes:
Any student who plagiarizes, whether from published material (such as a web site, book, or magazine) or from unpublished material (such as another student’s writing), will receive an F on the assignment. Any student who submits someone else’s work as if it were his or her own will receive an F on the assignment and may fail the class. Copying information from an online source directly into a paper will result in an automatic F for the assignment and possible failure of the course.
All work produced in this course is considered public and is used for the purposes of teaching and evaluation. This may include the use of your work as a model for future students and the submission of your work to an online plagiarism detection service.
Co-Curricular Probation: Students placed on academic probation at the end of the semester will be barred from most co-curricular activities the following semester. See the college catalog for further details.
Accommodations: Any student requiring accommodations because of a documented disability should notify the instructor AND the Academic Resource Center (Andrews Hall, third floor, 376-4700) at the beginning of the semester for further instructions.
Be prepared to discuss the reading in class on the date assigned. Papers are due at the beginning of class on the date assigned.
August
25 Introduction to the course; diagnostic writing
27 Whitman, “I Think I Could Turn and Live With Animals,” 66-7
Wright, “A Blessing,” 64-6
Introduction to expository writing
29 First three chapters of Genesis (any version; try www.bible.com)
Levertov, “Come Into Animal Presence,” 63
Rexroth, “Incarnation,” 166-68
Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” 168-9
Hooks, “Touching the Earth,” 169-73
September
1 Moby Dick chapters 1 through 3
3 Muir, “A Wind-Storm in the Forest,” 178-84
Rios, “The Secret Lion,” 214-15
Clifton, “Sonora Desert Poem,” 177-8
Rose, “Long Division: A Tribal History,” 297-8
5 Paper 1 draft due for peer review
8 Moby Dick chapters 4-17
10 Hemingway, “Indian Camp” (on electronic reserve)
Longfellow, “The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz”
(http://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=141)
Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life” (http://www.potw.org/archive/potw232.html)
Bryant, “To A Waterfowl”
(http://www.poetry-online.org/bryant_cullen_to_a_waterfowl.htm)
Bryant, “To the Fringed Gentian”
(http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-fringed-gentian/)
12 Frost, “The Gift Outright,” 295-6
Wordsworth, “The World is Too Much With Us,” 355-6
Traven, “Assembly Line,” 356-95
Ginsberg, “A Supermarket in California,” 380-81
15 Moby Dick chapters 18-34
17 Paper 1 due; review for exam
19 Exam 1
22 Moby Dick chapters 35-42
24 Williams, “The Erotic Landscape,” 27-30
Tevlin, “Of Hawks and Men,” 41-47
Oliver, “The Honey Tree,” 3-4
26 Paper 2 draft due
29 Moby Dick chapters 43-54
October
1 LeSeuer, “Harvest,” 381-9
Rogers, “Knot,” 61-2
3 Thoreau, “Solitude,” 47-53
Berry, “Stay Home,” 222-3
Dillard, “Living Like Weasels,” 4-7
6 Moby Dick chapters 55-80
8 Sanders, “Buckeye,” 290-95
Kincaid, “Alien Soil,” 327-32
10 Paper 2 due; review for exam
(four-day break Oct. 11-14)
15 Moby Dick chapters 81-98
17 Exam 2
20 Moby Dick chapters 99-120
22 Jeffers, “Passenger Pigeons,” 474-6
Anaya, “Devil Deer,” 486-91
Bishop, “The Fish,” 160-62
Hemingway, “Fight with a 20-Pound Trout,” 158-60
24 Estes, “La Mariposa, Butterfly Woman,” 17-21
Ortiz, “Forever,” 189-90
Villanueva, “Haciendo Apenas La Recoleccion,” 219-21
27 Moby Dick chapter 120 to the end
29 Paper 3 draft due
31 Erdrich, “Line of Credit,” 404-13
Merwin, “Rain at Night,” 432-4
November
3 Maclean, A River Runs Through It, 1-50
5 Maclean, 51-104
7 Paper 3 due; A River Runs Through It (film)
10 A River Runs Through It (film)
12 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 1-33
14 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 34-92
17 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 93-144
19 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 145-218
21 Paper 4 draft due
24 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 219-280
(Thanksgiving Break Nov. 26-30)
December
1 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 281-329
3 Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 330-374
5 Paper 4 due; review for exam
11 Final exam, 8:30 to 11 a.m.
Twenty-five times over the course of the semester, you will send me a brief e-mail message (at least 250 words) commenting on one or more items on the reading list that have not yet been discussed in class. You may wish to raise questions, offer interpretations, make connections among various readings, or try out ideas for papers. Feel free to be creative!
I may respond individually to your comments, answering questions or making suggestions for further exploration of topics. I may share interesting insights or questions with the class, but I will not use your name unless you want me to.
Sending comments: Comments must be submitted to my regular e-mail address (hogueb@marietta.edu); please do not submit them through webct. The subject line should be “reading comments.” Make sure to include your name in the text of the e-mail message. Send comments in the body of your e-mail message or as an attached Word file; other formats will receive no credit.
Deadlines: You may choose when you send your comments, within the following guidelines:
Evaluation: You may submit up to 25 comments, earning up to 4 points each, for a total of 100 points available toward your final grade. Each comment will earn either 0, 3, or 4 points.
To earn 0 points, submit a comment after we have discussed the literature in class
To earn 3 points, submit a comment that is
To earn 4 points, submit a comment that is
Weekly comment points will be maintained on webct. Check webct frequently to make sure the records are accurate; if an error occurs, please notify me as soon as possible.
Reading comments must be your original work. Plagiarism that occurs on one reading comment will result in a zero on all reading comments.
What is nature? Where did it come from? What is it for? Select two literary works from the reading list and compare their portrayals of nature, paying special attention to how the works characterize the natural world: Friendly or threatening? Powerless or powerful? Static or dynamic?
You need not refer to any outside sources; in fact, I prefer that you focus closely on the works themselves, using evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Your essay should be brief (3-5 pages) but well developed and should
Deadlines
Sept. 5: Draft due in class for peer review; failure to submit a draft will result in an F on the finished paper.
Sept. 17: Paper due at the beginning of class
There is no obligation to write about nature, so why do it? What purpose does it serve? Does literature reflect or shape cultural attitudes about nature? Select two works from the reading list and compare what they suggest about the relationship between literature and nature.
You need not refer to any outside sources; in fact, I prefer that you focus closely on the works themselves, using evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Your essay should be brief (3-5 pages) but well developed and should
Deadlines
Sept. 26 Paper 2 draft due
Oct. 10 Paper 2 due
In Moby Dick, Melville explores a variety of human responses to the natural world, and your second exam will ask you to consider certain ideas from Moby Dick in connection with another reading. For this paper, you will draw on your response to one of the questions on the exam, expanding it into a fully developed essay. One caveat: if you have already written about Moby Dick for a previous paper in this class, make sure that the second work you write about is not the same one you used in the previous paper.
You need not refer to any outside sources; in fact, I prefer that you focus closely on the works themselves, using evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Your essay should be brief (3-5 pages) but well developed and should
Deadlines
Oct. 29: Draft due for in-class peer review
Nov. 7: Revised paper due
How does the idea of progress influence the natural world? Analyze the relationship between progress and nature in Oryx and Crake and one other work from the reading list. Do not try to analyze everything the novel suggests about progress; instead, focus on one specific scene, incident, or character and examine it in some depth.
You need not refer to any outside sources; in fact, I prefer that you focus closely on the works themselves, using evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Your essay should be brief (3-5 pages) but well developed and should
Deadlines
Nov. 21 draft due in class for peer review
Dec. 5 final paper due