English 317.003/ PitE 377.001
Fall 2006
1046 Dana Building
Tues, Thur 10:00-11:30am
Prof. Scotti Parrish
office: 3164 Angell Hall
email: sparrish@umich.edu
office hrs: tues 1:30-3:00 or
by appointment
The Environmental Imagination in North America
This course will look at the development of responses to American nature from
the colonial period to the present. From anticipations of Eden by Columbus and British
Renaissance explorers to representations of wilderness trials by Puritans, we will move to
Enlightenment understandings of the orderliness and/or the sublimity of American nature.
We will read Thoreau and Emerson’s Transcendentalist claims about the natural world
and then look at early twentieth century writers who described the western mountains,
prairies, and California desert; we will read later 20thc authors concerned about
wilderness loss or management, toxicity, concepts of sustainability, and the dependence
of the human on the non-human world. You will do short written analyses of texts, a
final exam, and a creative final research project.
Course Texts (all books available at Shaman Drum Bookshop, 313 S. State, 2nd Fl.):
John Muir, The Mountains of California
Mary Austin, Land of Little Rain
Aldo Leopold, The Sand County Almanac
Willa Cather, My Antonia
William Faulkner, Three Famous Short Novels
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
Carolyn Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History
Part I of coursepack at Accu-copy on William Street; I will let you know when Part II is
ready.
Course Requirements:
Reading: Come to every class with reading fully digested. Because this is partly a
discussion-oriented course, you will be best prepared to participate if you have already
formulated a small group of questions in your mind, and flagged a few passages in the
text that will help us address your question. We will perhaps break down into smaller
group discussions in class.
Attendance: More than two unexcused absences will affect your grade. Please contact
me before class by email when an emergency arises, and please bring in doctor’s notices
for illness.
Office Hours: I will expect to see all students at least twice in office hours. I can
schedule extra times if you can’t make my tuesday 1:30-3pm hours.
In-class writing assignments: Three times in the early part of the term, I will take 30
minutes of our class time to have you respond to a passage from the reading that you will
have finished for that day. You will be asked to do a close reading of the passage in
which you remark upon and analyze various elements of the text: the form/style (sound,
diction, imagery, sentence or line structure), the meaning, how the passage develops or
anticipate other moments in the narrative.
Final Project: You may choose from three ideas for this project, or create your own (in
dialogue with me):
1) Natural History Museum: research project about a species in the exhibits; write
out in research essay; Ipod tour; design school activities and information pack
2) Nichols Arboretum: research project about an element of the Arb ecosystem—the
prairie, the Huron River, oak openings, for example—create written materials for
public consumption and research essay
3) Sustainablity on Campus: research an issue about UM’s ecological footprint;
create public teaching materials and research essay
4) Other: perhaps there is a species of plant or animal or a particular place/ecosystem
that is dear to you; research this species/place; write researched and descriptive
essay about it
Final Exam: This will be ½ on the environmental history covered in AEH and ½ on the
texts we have read. You will write short answers and do term identification on history
section; write thematic essay on texts.
Plagiarism: When you use someone else’s words or even paraphrased ideas without
citing that person, you are committing plagiarism; this is an extremely serious offense
that will result in a failing grade and disciplinary action. See English Department website
for a fuller explanation of what constitutes plagiarism.
Grading: The core of your grade will be based upon the three in-class writing
assignments, the final project, and the final exam (1/3 each). After this core grade is
determined, I will then consider class participation, attendance, and effort.
Class Schedule: (reading is due on the date it appears on the schedule)
Week One:
Sept 5
Sept 7
Introductions; Mary Oliver, “August”
Genesis 1-3, Raleigh, Columbus, Marvell; Merchant, American
Environmental History (referred to below as AEH), Chap. 1 (pp.3-23)
Week Two:
Sept 12
Exodus 11-17, Bradford, Bradstreet; AEH, Chap. 2 (pp.24-38)
Sept 14
Crevecoeur, Jefferson; AEH, Chap. 3 (pp.39-58)
Week Three:
Sept 19
Emerson, Thoreau
Sept 21
Audubon, Jewett; AEH, Chap. 4 (59-79)
Week Four:
Sept 26
Visit to Natural History Museum: meet in rotunda of museum promptly at
10:10am; Muir, to 158 (Kira Berman, contact at museum)
Sept 28
Muir, to end (264)
Week Five:
Oct 3
Austin, Land of Little Rain, Intro and 1-46; AEH, Chap. 5 (80-99)
Oct 5
Land of Little Rain, 47-107
Week Six:
Oct 10
Cather, My Antonia, Intro and Book I (to p. 90); in-class writing
Oct 12
My Antonia, Book II (to p. 161); make sure you have met with me once to
discuss your final project
Week Seven:
Oct 17
Fall Study Break—No CLASS
Oct 19
My Antonia, Books III, IV, V (to end, 238); visit to Arboretum
Week Eight:
Oct 24
Leopold, Sand County Almanac, Books I and IV (the upshot)
Oct 26
Week Nine:
Faulkner, The Bear to 244
Oct 31
Faulkner, The Bear, to end; sign up for presentation date
Nov 2
Finish discussing The Bear; in-class written analysis
Week Ten:
Nov 7
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony to 59; AEH, Chap.8 (140-158)
Nov 9
Ceremony, to 180; Silko essay in coursepack I
Week Eleven:
Nov 14
Ceremony, to 261
Nov 16
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, selections; Annie Dillard in coursepack II
Week Twelve:
Nov 21
Christopher Uhl, Michael Pollan; AEH, Chap. 7 (120-139); Lopez, in
coursepack II
Nov 23
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY!
Week Thirteen:
Nov 28
William Matthews, Mary Oliver poems in coursepack II; in-class written
analysis
Nov 30
Final Presentations (7 minutes each)
Week Fourteen:
Dec 5
Final Presentations (7 minutes each)
Dec 7
Final Presentations (7 minutes each)
Week Fifteen:
Dec 12
Final Presentations (7 minutes each);
Final Exam
Tuesday, December 19, 1:30pm-3pm in our classroom
ENGLISH 317/ PITE 377
PROF PARRISH
DEC 19, 2006
FINAL EXAM
SECTION I: (1/2 HOUR)
Plot your own timeline of environmental history in North America and the Caribbean
from the pre-Columbian era to the present. Choose five points in the chronology. These
do not need to have a cohering theme. You need to explain in clear language, with names
and dates, each point you plot. You also need to justify why you have constructed your
history the way that you have; explain not just what happened but why it is important—
you can do this as a concluding paragraph or insert it along the way with each point.
These ‘points’ can represent a legislative act, the publication of a book, the emergence of
a concept, or a gradual movement that may span a number of years.
SECTION II: (1/2 HOUR)
Do a close reading of the attached Mary Oliver poem. Attend to her word and sound
choices, and her placement or pattern of words and sounds; attend to what she is
describing; attend to her representation of the natural world (why the swamp?); attend to
the relation here between the human and non-human world, between the poet’s body and
the body of nature; try to come up with a conclusion about what it means.
SECTION III: (1/2 HOUR)
Choose one of the following themes and write upon it in relation to at least 3 of our texts.
Take time to map out your response first.
1) The relation between humans and animals
2) The issues relating to land possession by humans
3) The connection between race, ethnicity, and/or nationhood and American nature
(race of course includes whiteness; ethnicity includes Anglo-Protestantism)