*GWS 111*
*Special Topics:*
*National Bodies & National Landscapes*
*Tues/Thurs 9:30-11:00*
*88 Dwinelle*
Instructor: Barbara Barnes
Office Hours: Wednesdays, TIME TBA
Office: 614 Barrows
email:
babarnes@berkeley.edu
*Course Description & Objectives*
The patriotic song “America the Beautiful” famously begins by invoking the
nation’s expansive landscapes: “O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber
waves of grain, For purple mountains majesty, Above the fruited plane.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with
brotherhood, From sea to shining sea.” In its second verse and chorus, the
song imagines the bodies that populate that national landscape and the
values that are associated with those bodies: “O beautiful for pilgrim
feet, Whose stern impassion’d stress, A thoroughfare for freedom beat,
Across the wilderness. America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm
thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law.” Like all representations,
these lyrics tell only a partial story. The land is welcoming to Pilgrims
who gain their freedom from their passage in the wilderness, but there are
no other human inhabitants in the story told in the song; all others are
erased. Regardless, the connection between Pilgrim’s feet and wilderness
has come to seem natural—indeed, inevitable.
This course will engage in an extended
critique of the connections between nature and nation, as expressed through
colonial history. With a focus on the making of the United States settler
colonial enterprises, we will critically investigate nations as cultural
projects, and how they become naturalized (how they come to seem
inevitable) through references to “nature,” “land,” or “Wilderness.” To
this end, we will focus ways that connections are forged between the
natural-cultural entities of *bodies* and *landscapes*. Specifically, we
will explore the historical symbolic-material importance of natural and
wilderness landscapes in the making of U.S. national identities, and how
specifically gendered and racialized bodies are seen to belong (or not) in
nationally coded places in specific historical moments. Our approach will
be interdisciplinary: texts will be taken from history, sociology,
anthropology, journalism, film, feminist geography, and science studies. By
the end of the course, I hope you will be able to: 1) think critically
about the nation as a symbolically produced political formation; 2)
understand the centrality of the cultural production of territories/bodies
in this formation; 3) understand that specific framings of
bodies/lanscapes/territories have material and historical effects; 4)
understand and be able to analyze “nature,” “wilderness,” and human bodies
as culturally produced, and reflective of prevailing power relations; 5)
understand and be able to analyze landscapes as gendered, racialized, and
nationalized; 6) develop or hone skills of analysis and verbal expression.
*Required Texts* (available at ASUC textbook store in the MLK buliding &
Ned’s Books, 2476 Bancroft):
Bloom, Lisa (1993). *Gender on Ice: American Ideologies of Polar
Expedition. *Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kultez, Valerie (1998). *The tainted desert: Environmental and social ruin
in the American West*. NY Routledge.
LaDuke, Winona (2005). *Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and
Claiming. *Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
McDowell, Linda (1999). *Gender, Identity, and Place: Understanding
Feminist Geographies.* Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Scott, Rebecca R. (2010). *Removing mountains: Extracting nature and
identity in the Appalachian Coalfields*. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Stern, Alexandra (2005). *Eugenic Nation: Faults & frontiers of better
breeding in modern America*. Berkeley: UC Press.
Course Reader (will be available at Zee Zee Copy, 2431C Durant Ave.
510-705-8411)
*Course Requirements & Grading Criteria*
**
*Attendance/Participation (15%):* *Attendance*: Your presence is required
in all class sessions. Records will be kept, and the attendance policy is
as follows: your first four absences will not affect your grade, and you do
not need to provide documentation to have them excused. Each unexcused
absence after four will lower your attendance score by 1 point. If you
leave before the end of the class period, you will be considered absent for
the day, unless you have received permission in advance. If you sleep
through class, surf the internet, chat online, look at facebook, etc., you
will be considered absent. Absences can be excused only with official
documentation of an unavoidable conflict or health issue. *Participation*:
You are expected to come to class having read the materials assigned for
each day and to contribute to the class discussions. Please take advantage
of the time in class to ask questions, explore the material/ideas, and
strive for intellectual engagement. In order to assist you in keeping up
with the reading, occasional short, informal reading responses and in-class
writing assignments may be assigned (these will sometimes be due the
following class and sometimes during the class in which they are given).
Participation will be assessed primarily on your performance on these
quizzes and reading responses, along with contributions to in-class
discussions and any in-class group work. If you are disruptive in any way
to class discussions or the classroom atmosphere (e.g., you walk around,
talk to your classmates, etc.), you will lose attendance/participation
points.
*Mid-Term Exam (25%):* The mid-term will be a take-home exam on course
concepts, themes, and terms. It will be due in class on *March 1*. Details
will be explained and a prompt distributed approximately one week before
the exam is due.
**
*Landscape Paper (30%):* This assignment asks you to draw on course
materials and concepts to write a short, analytical, and critically
interesting meditation on a specific landscape that has particular meaning
for you. For example, you might choose a landscape that has shaped your
identity in some fashion (because you grew up in/near it, you had a
personally significant visit to it, you have a family link to it, it is
particularly alluring to you, etc.). This assignment will give you an
opportunity to use course materials to reflect on what a specific landscape
means to you—that is, how landscape representations have created a specific
place, and your sense of that place, as well as your connection to that
place. This paper should be approximately 5 pages long, and is due in class
on *April 5.* More information will be forthcoming.
*Final Paper (30%):* The final paper for this course will be an essay
written in response to specific questions distributed at the end of the
semester. It will require you to address, and make connections among,
materials and questions raised throughout the entire course. The paper will
be due on *Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 2 pm.* Details will be forthcoming.
There will be no final exam given other than the paper; once you have
handed in your final paper, you are finished with the course.
*
*
*Schedule of Classes and Readings:*
Please complete each day’s readings before class. ‘*’ indicates the reading
is located in the course reader; ‘†’ indicates the reading is available on
the bspace page, under the ‘resources’ tab (most recommended readings will
be made available on the bspace page). Depending on the needs and direction
of the class, changes may be made to the schedule of readings and
assignments. These changes, if they are made, will be announced in class
(they may also be announced on bspace, but do not rely on this!; if you
miss class, you need to make arrangements with fellow students to find out
what you missed).
Tues 1/17: Introduction to the course, its themes, and expectations.
*~~ National Landscapes, National Bodies, National Belonging & Visual
Representation ~~*
**
Thurs 1/19: Imagining “American” Landscapes & Their Bodies
† John, Gareth E. (2001). Cultural Nationalism, Westward Expansion and the
Production of Imperial Landscape. *Cultural Geographies, 8*(2), 175-203.
† Turner, Frederick Jackson (1920). The significance of the frontier in
American history.
† Aikin, R. C. (2000). Paintings of manifest destiny: Mapping the
nation. *American
Art, 14*(3), 78-89.
Tues 1/24: Imagining and Inhabiting “American” Landscapes
†* Mitchell, WJT (2002). Imperial Landscape. In WJT Mitchell (Ed.),
*Landscape
and power* (pp. 5-34). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
†* Van Slyck, A. A. (2006). Putting campers in their place. In *A
manufactured wilderness: Summer camps and the shaping of American
youth*(pp 1-40). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
*Recommended**:*
Van Slyck. Introduction. In A manufactured wilderness (pp xix-xxxvii).
Bederman, Gail (1995). Theodore Roosevelt. In *Manliness &
civilization*(pp 170-215). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thurs 1/26: Colonial Landscape & Frontier Imaginaries
Watch on your own: *Stagecoach *(John Ford, 1939). Available via hulu,
imdb, or at the Media Resource Center in the Moffitt Library.
†* Mackey, Eve (2000). ‘Death by landscape’: Race, nature, and gender in
Canadian nationalist mythology. *Canadian Women’s Studies, 20*(2), 125-130.
†* Shohat, Ella & Stam, Robert (1994). The imperial imaginary. In *Unthinking
Eurocentrism* (pp. 100-136). London: Routledge.
*Recommended:*
† Carmichael, Deborah (2006). The living presence of Monument Valley in
John Ford’s *Stagecoach.* In D. Carmichael (Ed.), *The landscape of
Hollywood Westerns: Ecocriticism in American Film Genre.* University of
Utah Press
*~~ Introducing Key Terms: Gender, Place, Bodies, Nation, and Landscape ~~*
Tues 1/31: Gender, Place, Bodies
Linda McDowell, *Gender, Identity, & Place*: “Introduction: Place and
Gender” (up to page 27); Chapter 2, “In and Out of Place”
**
Thus 2/2: Gender, Landscape, & Nation/Empire
Linda McDowell, *Gender, Identity, & Place: *Chapter 6, “In Public”
* Rose, Gillian (1997). Looking at landscape: The uneasy pleasures of power
(excerpt). In L. McDowell & J. P. Sharp (Eds.), *Space, gender,
knowledge*(pp 193-200). NY: Wiley & Sons. (Originally published 1993.)
*Recommended:*
† Nash, Catherine (1994). Remapping the body/land: New cartographies of
identity, gender, and landscape in Ireland. In A. Blunt & G. Rose
(Eds.), *Writing
women and space* (pp 227-250). NY: The Guilford Press.
**
Tues 2/7: Nations/Nationalisms, Territories, & Citizens
Linda McDowell, *Gender, Identity, & Place: *Chapter 7: “Gendering the
Nation-State”
* Anderson, Benedict (1993). “Introduction.” In *Imagined communities* (pp
1-8). London: Verso.
*Recommended:*
† Yuval-Davis, Nira (2003). Citizenship, territoriality and the gendered
construction of difference. In N. Brenner, B. Jessop, M. Jones, & G.
MacLeod (Eds.), *State/space: A reader* (pp 309-325). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Thurs 2/9: The National Symbolic: Symbols and Citizenship
*Berlant, Lauren (1991). America, Post-Utopia. In *The anatomy of national
fantasy *(pp. 19-56). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tues 2/14: The National Symbolic Continued: Sacred and Symbolic
National Landscapes
*Novac, Barbara (1980). Introduction: The nationalist garden and the Holy
Book. In *Nature & culture: American landscape & painting 1825-1875* (pp
3-17). NY: Oxford University Press.
Thurs 2/16: Sacred and Symbolic Landscape continued
* Spence, Mark David (1996). Crown of the continent; backbone of the world:
The American wilderness ideal and Blackfeet exclusion from Glacier National
Park. *Environmental History, 1*(3), 22-49.
Winona LaDuke, *Recovering the Sacred: *pp 11-46
Tues 2/21: Sacred and Symbolic Landscape continued
Winona La Duke, *Recovering the Sacred: *67-129 & 153-166
Thurs 2/23: Sense of Place: Region and Global
* Massey, Doreen (1994). A global sense of place. In *Space, place &
gender*(pp 146-156). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Tues 2/28: Sense of Place, Rootedness, & Displacement
*Malkki, Liisa. National Geographic.
Linda McDowell, Chapter 8
Thurs 3/1: Citizenship, Extraction, Property, Marginalized White
Masculinities
*Midterm Due!*
Rebecca Scott, *Removing Mountains: *Introduction & Chapter 1
Tues 3/6: History, Race, Land, & Belonging
Rebecca Scott: Chapters 2, 5, 6 & Conclusion
* **
*
*~ Knowledge/Power: Landscape, Nature, & National Identity ~*
**
Thurs 3/8: The Geographical Imagination
* Massey, Doreen (1995). Imagining the world. In D. Massey & J. Allen
(Eds.), *Geographical worlds* (pp. 5-51). NY: Oxford University Press.
Tues 3/13: Power/Knowledge & Partial Perspective
* Haraway, Donna J., 1991. Situated knowledges: The science question in
feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. In *Simians, Cyborgs,
and Women: The Reinvention of Nature* (pp. 183-202). NY: Routledge.
Thurs 3/15: Power/Knowledge—Travel Writing and Empire
* Pratt, Mary Louise (1992). Introduction & Science, planetary
consciousness, interiors. In *Imperial eyes* (pp. 1-37). NY: Routledge.
*Recommended:*
†Mills, Sara (1994). Knowledge, gender, & empire. In A. Blunt & G. Rose
(Eds.), *Writing women and space* (pp 29-50). NY: Guilford.
†Said, Edward (1996). Orientalism (excerpts). In J. Agnew, D. N.
Livingstone, &A. Rogers (Eds.), *Human geography* (pp 414-421). Cambridge:
Blackwell. (Originally published 1978.)
Tues 3/20: Exploration, Visual Culture, Landscape, & National Identity
* Domosh, Mona (2002). “A ‘civilized’ commerce: Gender, ‘race’, and empire
at the 1893 Chicago Exposition. *Cultural geographies, 9,* 181-201.
Thurs 3/22:Exploration, Landscape, National Identity
Lisa Bloom, *Gender on Ice:* Introduction; Chapters 1 & 2
Tues 3/27 & Thurs 3/29: SPRING BREAK!
Tues 4/3: Continued Narratives of Wilderness Exploration
Please view film on your own: *Into the Wild* (available in the Media
Resource Center, 1st floor of Moffitt & via Netflix)
Lisa Bloom, *Gender on Ice:* Chapters 3 & 4
† Krakaur, Jon (1993). Into the wild. *Outside magazine online. *Available
at http://outside.away.com/outside/features/1993/1993_into_the_wild_2.html
*~ Making National Bodies/National Landscapes** ~*
Thurs 4/5: Racial & National Borders
*Landscape Paper Due!*
Alexandra Stern, *Eugenic Nation:* Introduction & Chapter 1
Tues 4/10: Racial & National Borders
Alexandra Stern, *Eugenic Nation*: Chapter 2
Thurs 4/12: * *Making National Landscapes/National Bodies
Alexandra Stern, *Eugenic Nation*: Chapters 3 & 4*
*
**
*~ National Landscapes/National Bodies: “Empty” Spaces and Resource Space ~*
Tues 4/17: Nuclear Frontiers
Valerie Kuletz, *The Tainted Desert*: Preface & Chapters 1-2
Thurs 4/19: Nuclear Frontiers, Continued
Valerie Kuletz, *Tainted Desert:* Chapters 3-4
Tues 4/24:
Valerie Kuletz, *Tainted Desert: *Chapters 5-8
*Recommended:*
† Ishyama, Noriko & Tallbear, Kimberly (2001). Changing notions of
environmental justice in the decision to host a nuclear fuel storage
facility on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation. Paper presented at the
Waste Management 2001 Symposia.
4/26: Rethinking Landscape, Nation, and Nature
† Cronon, William (1996). The trouble with wilderness. In W. Cronon
(Ed.), *Uncommon
ground *(pp 69-90). NY: Norton.
† Anna Tsing (2005). How to make resources in order to destroy them (and
then save them?) on the salvage frontier. In D. Rosenberg & S. Harding
(Eds.), Histories of the future (pp 51-74). Durham: Duke.