Jay Watson
ENGL 475--Southern Environmental Writing
Fall 2012
A reading and discussion course for English and Southern Studies majors and Environmental Studies
minors. We will focus on fiction, travel writing, memoir, nature writing, and poetry from a more than 200year-old tradition of writing about the nonhuman and human environments of the U.S. South. Along the
way we will tackle such issues as the aesthetic and political challenges of environmental representation,
human and nonhuman histories of the land, environmental justice and racial justice, the tangled
relationship between ecological and economic consciousness, connections between landscape,
spirituality, and healing, and models of environmental understanding or involvement (conquest,
stewardship, activism) and their consequences. Online reader-response journals, 5-page environmental
awareness exercise, 5-7-page critical essay, 10-12-page research project, comprehensive final exam.
Reading assignments will be selected from among the following: William Bartram, Travels; John James
Audubon, Birds of America; John Muir, A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf; William Faulkner, Go Down,
Moses; Marjory Stoneman Douglas, The Everglades: River of Grass; Walter Anderson, The Horn Island
Logbooks; James Dickey, Deliverance; Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America; Rick Bass, Wild to the
Heart; Larry Brown, Joe; Linda Hogan, Power; Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer; Janisse Ray,
Drifting into Darien.
ENGLISH 475: SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING
T Th 2:30-3:45, Bishop 333
Jay Watson
C-211 Bondurant(office)
915-7671 (O)
Fall 2010
jwatson@olemiss.edu
Office hours: M Th 4:00-5:00 or by appt.
A reading and discussion course for English, Environmental Studies, and Southern Studies
concentrators. We will focus on fiction, travel writing, memoir, nature writing, and poetry, covering some
of the high points of a more than 200-year-old tradition of writing about the nonhuman and human
environments of the U.S. South. Along the way we will tackle such issues as the aesthetic and political
challenges of environmental representation, human and nonhuman histories of the land, environmental
justice and racial justice, the tangled relationship between ecological and economic consciousness,
connections between landscape, spirituality, and healing, and models of environmental understanding or
involvement (conquest, stewardship, activism) and their consequences.
Let me be the first to point out that there is some great material missing from this syllabus: the sixteenthcentury Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, William Byrd’s Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and
North Carolina, Eddy Harris’s Mississippi Solo, Tim Gautreaux’s The Next Step in the Dance, Barbara
Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, James Dickey’s amazing nature poetry—the list could go on a while. So if
a personal favorite or a highly anticipated title is missing from the syllabus, take it less as a deliberate
slight than as a challenge to venture beyond the reading list in exploring this rich and rapidly growing
body of literature. In fact I’ll put my money where my mouth is here and invite interested students to go
off the syllabus for paper topics; just be sure to run any such plans by me first.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this course, students will have:
(1) a more comprehensive understanding of some of the guiding models, questions, and concerns that
ecocritics bring to literature, and of the role of the environment in literary works and in life;
(2) an improved ability to think critically and to write analytically, persuasively, and comparatively about
literary and cultural texts;
(3) greater ease and effectiveness in sharing ideas and communicating judgments persuasively, whether
orally, in writing, or online;
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and (4) a sharpened and deepened awareness of the nonhuman environment itself.
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
For the semester I will allow each student a total of 4 absences . . . PERIOD. This amounts to two full
weeks of class, which to me seems pretty generous. It doesn't matter to me whether these absences are
the result of genuine emergencies or simply an active social life; in other words, you don't need to
“excuse” your absences with me, but you are only going to get 4 of them. For each absence beyond the
4 allotted ones, your course grade will be lowered by 5 points; and that half a letter grade, of course, can
be the difference between an A- and a B+, a B- and a C+, etc. My advice to you is to pace yourself so
you don't get caught short at the end of the semester, when illness and other stress-inducing phenomena
like papers and finals beckon.
OTHER COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. In the interest of promoting active, thoughtful discussion, class participation will count 15% of your final
grade.
2. The Environmental Awareness Project, a series of five 1-2-page writing assignments due in class each
Tuesday from September 7 to October 5. Guidelines for the Environmental Awareness Project can be
downloaded now from the ASSIGNMENTS folder of BLACKBOARD.
3. A 5-7-page Critical Essay, due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 12. I will circulate
sample topics in advance of that date.
3. A 10-12-page Capstone Project due at the beginning of class on Thursday, November 18,
and taking one of two forms: (A) a critical research essay, incorporating secondary as well as primary
materials, on a topic of your choice dealing with one or more of the authors or texts from our syllabus; or
(B) an environmental history of your hometown community in the 20th century, drawing on scholarly
sources, interviews, photographs, maps, newspaper materials or other local documents, etc., to give the
reader an accurate sense of the natural landscape and the most significant events and forces that have
shaped and influenced it over the last hundred years.
A 250-300-word project proposal with working bibliography will be due at the beginning of class on
Tuesday, October 19.
4. A comprehensive Final Examination in Bishop 333 on Tuesday, December 7 at 4:00 p.m.
5. Seven (7) biweekly Reader-Response Journal entries of 300-400 words, to be posted to online
discussion forums in the BLACKBOARD course environment for this class. (For more on BLACKBOARD
see below.) A biweekly journal entry must be posted by 4:00 p.m. on the following Wednesdays:
September 1, September 15, September 29, October 13, October 27, November 10, December 1.
The FINAL GRADE FORMULA is as follows:
Class participation:
Environmental awareness project:
5-7-page essay:
Reader-response journals:
10-12-page capstone project:
Final exam:
TOTAL
15%
15%
15%
15%
25%
15%
100%
ABOUT BLACKBOARD:
This class will utilize the BLACKBOARD learning system, an online course environment, as a resource.
3
General course announcements, contact information for the teaching staff, and downloadable copies of
the course syllabus, suggested paper topics and writing assignment guidelines, and other course
materials will be posted to BLACKBOARD during the semester.
Every student enrolled in ENGL 475 will have a BLACKBOARD account activated for this class. You do
not have to activate this account yourself; it will be taken care of automatically. The University of
Mississippi homepage (www.olemiss.edu) features a link to the BLACKBOARD login page—look just
above the mouse icon on the left side of the page—or you may set your browser to
http://blackboard.olemiss.edu/webapps/login and go there directly. Please note that you use your WebID
username and password in order to log in to the system. After logging in, use the tabs near the top left
corner of the “My UM” page to go to the “Courses” page, where, under “Courses in which you are
participating,” you should see a link to “Southern Environmental Writing.” After verifying the Course ID
just below to insure that you have been enrolled in the correct course and section, click on the link, which
should take you to the Announcements page for the class. There you will see a welcome message with
further information.
If you have problems accessing your BLACKBOARD account for ENGL 475, please report them to me as
quickly as possible and we will try to get them ironed out. Queries and problems can also be e-mailed
directly to the system administrators at blackboard@olemiss.edu
You should plan on logging on to BLACKBOARD regularly—I’d recommend at least once between class
meetings—to check for course updates and announcements.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
If you are a student with a documented learning disability who needs accommodations in the classroom
and/or testing environment, please contact me and your TA immediately to notify us of your situation.
Such accommodations may include extended or relaxed testing time, alternative testing environments or
formats, preferential seating, supplemental note-taking, and assistive technology. Please note that
requests for accommodations must be accompanied by an instructor notification form from the Office of
Student Disability Serves, 234 Martindale Center, 915-7128.
ACADEMIC HONESTY AND FAIRNESS
Academic integrity is essential to all the values upon which the university is founded. Students are
expected to observe academic honesty in all aspects of their work. A student with a documented case of
plagiarism or academic cheating in this course will receive the grade of F for the course and may be
subject to additional academic discipline including suspension or even expulsion from the university.
If you are unsure what constitutes cheating or plagiarism on a particular course assignment, consult with
your section leader about the matter before turning the assignment in. It’s always better to be safe than
sorry in such cases. The “M” Book, the University of Mississippi Handbook of Standards and Activities,
defines plagiarism and unfair use and I would advise every student to familiar him/herself with these
official definitions. The “M” Book is available from the Office of the Dean of Students or online at the
following address: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/dean_of_students/mbook/
COURSE MATERIALS
The following required texts are available at the Barnes and Noble campus bookstore:
John James Audubon, Writings and Drawings (Library of America)
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America (Sierra Club)
Larry Brown, Joe (Algonquin)
James Dickey, Deliverance (Laurel/Dell)
4
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses (Vintage International)
Linda Hogan, Power (Norton)
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (Plume)
John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (Mariner)
Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (Milkweed)
READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
T Aug 24
Ursula K. Heise, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Ecocriticism” (.pdf download from COURSE
DOCUMENTS folder of BLACKBOARD)
Th 25
William Bartram, from Travels, pp. li-lxi, 63-107, 211-226 (.pdf download from COURSE
DOCUMENTS folder of BLACKBOARD)
T 31
John James Audubon, “Account of the Method of Drawing Birds employed by J.
Audubon, Esq. F. R. S. E., in a Letter to a Friend” (753-759); “My Style of Drawing
Birds” (759-764), and the following Ornithological Biographies and accompanying
plates:
--The Wild Turkey (195-211, plate 1)
--The Bird of Washington (217-222, plate 3)
--The Mocking Bird (227-233, plate 4)
--The Carolina Parrot (233-238, plates 5, 6, 7)
--The White-headed Eagle (238-248, plates 10, 11)
--The Passenger Pigeon (260-269, plates 14, 15)
--The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (269-275, plates 16, 17)
--The Wood Thrush (275-278, plates 18, 19)
[W Sept 1
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #1 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th 2
Audubon, Ornithological Biographies and accompanying plates:
--The Mississippi Kite (319-324, plate 23)
--The Great Blue Heron (384-393, plates 35, 47)
--The Wood Ibis (404-410, plate 38)
--Louisiana Heron (410-414, plate 40)
--The White Ibis (422-429, plate 42)--The Long-billed Curlew (440-445, plate 43)
--The Brown Pelican (448-457, plates 45, 46)
--Anhinga or Snake-Bird (477-498, plates 50, 51)
--Trumpeter Swan (508-515, plates 54, 55)
--American Flamingo (515-519, plate 53)
and “The Ohio” (520-524), “The Eccentric Naturalist” (537-543), “Pitting of Wolves” (543547), and “Breaking Up of the Ice” (547-550)
T7
John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, pp. 1-82 (ch. 1-4)
[N.B. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROJECT ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE IN CLASS.]
Th 9
Muir, pp. 83-212 (ch. 5-9)
5
T 14
Charles Chesnutt, “Po’ Sandy,” Charley Patton, “High Water Everywhere, Pts. 1 and 2,”
Richard Wright, “Down by the Riverside,” William Alexander Percy, “Hell and High
Water” and “The Flood of 1927”
(.pdf downloads from COURSE DOCUMENTS folder of BLACKBOARD)
[N.B. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROJECT ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE IN CLASS.]
[W 15
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #2 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th 16
T 21
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses, pp. 3-127 (“Was,” “The Fire and the Hearth”)
Faulkner, pp. 131-180 (“Pantaloon in Black,” “The Old People”)
[N.B. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROJECT ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE IN CLASS.]
Th 23
T 28
Faulkner, pp. 183-315 (“The Bear”)
Faulkner, pp. 319-365 (“Delta Autumn,” “Go Down, Moses”)
[N.B. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROJECT ASSIGNMENT #4 DUE IN CLASS.]
[W 29
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #3 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th 30
James Dickey, Deliverance, pp. 7-74 (through September 14)
T Oct 5 Dickey, pp. 83-236 (finish book)
[N.B. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROJECT ASSIGNMENT #5 DUE IN CLASS.]
Th 7
T 12
Berry, The Unsettling of America, ch. 1-5 (pp. 3-79)
Berry, ch. 6, 7, 9 (pp. 81-140, 171-223)
[N.B. 5-7-PAGE CRITICAL ESSAY DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS]
[W 13
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #4 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th 14
T 19
Morrison, Song of Solomon, ch. 1-3 (pp. 3-89)
Morrison, ch. 4-10 (pp. 90-256)
[N.B. 250-300-WORD CAPSTONE PROJECT PROPOSALS DUE IN CLASS]
Th 21
Morrison, ch. 11-15 (pp. 257-337)
T 26
TBA
[W 27
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #5 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th 28
TBA
T Nov 2 Brown, Joe, pp. 1-134
Th 4
Brown, pp. 135-210
T9
Brown, pp. 211-345
[W 10
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #6 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th 11
T 16
Linda Hogan, Power, ch. 1-3 (pp. 1-81)
Hogan, ch. 4-9 (pp. 83-235)
Th 18
Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, pp. 3-69 (through “Forest Beloved”)
[N.B. CAPSTONE PROJECTS DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS]
T 23—Th 25
FALL BREAK—NO CLASS
T 30
Ray, pp. 71-209 (through “Bachman’s Sparrow”)
6
[W Dec 1
N. B. READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL #7 DUE BY 4 P.M. ON BLACKBOARD]
Th Dec 2
Ray, pp. 211-273 (finish book)
T Dec 7 FINAL EXAMINATION (4:00 p.m., Bishop 333)
LIBRARY RESERVE
I am placing the following texts on reserve at the library to be accessible to you throughout the semester.
This is not additional required reading, but it may be helpful for research projects or for students who are
interested in further reading.
PRIMARY READING (3-day reserve)
Walter Anderson, The Horn Island Logs [QH 105 .M7 A52 1985] [QH 105 .M7 A52 1973]
John James Audubon, Writings and Drawings [QL 31 .A9 A3 1999]
---, two copies of The Birds of America or the original watercolor paintings for that volume. [QL 674.A9
1942] [QL 674.A9 1946]
William Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram: Naturalist’s Edition (Yale UP, 1958) [F213 .B2893]
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America [HD 1761 .B47]
Larry Brown, Joe [PS 3552 .R6927 J64 1991]
James Dickey, Deliverance [PS 3554 .I32 D4]
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses [PS 3511 .A86 G6 1955]
Linda Hogan, Power [PS 3558 .O34726 P6 1998]
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon [PS 3563 .O8749 S6 2004]
John Muir, A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf [F215 .M95]
William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee [PS 3531 .E65 Z5 1941]
Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood [F 294 .B39 R39 1999]
Richard Wright, Uncle Tom’s Children (for “Down by the Riverside”) [PS 3545 .R815 U5x 1965]
SECONDARY SOURCES (24-hour reserve)
Lawrence Buell, The Future of Environmental Criticism [PS 169 .E25 B837 2005]
--, Writing for an Endangered World [PS 169 .E25 B84 2001]
Alfred Cowdrey, This Land, This South: An Environmental History (UP of Kentucky, 1983) [GF504 .S68
C68 1983]
--, This Land, This South: An Environmental History (UP of Kentucky, 1996) [GF504 .S68 C68 1996]
Donald E. Davis, Southern United States: An Environmental History (ABC-Clio, 2006) [GF 13.3.S6 S68
2006]
--, Where There are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians (U of Georgia P,
2000) [GF504 .A5 D38 2000]
Jack Temple Kirby, Poquosin: A Study of Rural Landscapes and Society (U of North Carolina P, 1995)
[GF504 .D57 K57 1995]
David Mazel, American Literary Environmentalism [PS 169 .E25 M39 2000]
Jeffrey Myers, Converging Stories: Race, Ecology, and Environmental Justice in America [PS 169 .E25
M94 2005]
Mikko Saikku, This Delta, This Land: An Environmental History of the Yazoo-Mississippi Floodplain (U of
Georgia P, 2005) [GE155 .M57 S35 2005]