Schedule of Readings and Assignments

Week 1

10/17: Intro

We’ll review the course aims, assignments, and general plan for our 1/2 semester together.

What is your definition of “nature”?
Why do conceptions of “nature” matter?
- To better answer that question, read Gavin Lamb, Nature: The Most Complex Word in the English Language
- For the original “Nature” entry, see Williams, Keywords in the Zotero library.

10/19: Considering Nature at Scale

D. W. Meinig, “The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene” (1979), 33–48.
Raymond Williams, Keywords (Introduction). This nicely explains why words like “nature” are so revealing. We need to keep this in mind throughout the course.
CHALLENGE: Raymond Williams, “Ideas of Nature” (1980), 67–85. This reading is a challenge at times! But the many excellent ideas about different ways to think about nature–and how it’s changed over time–make it worth the effort. Be prepared to describe the ideas that you were able to get out of it and our discussion should clarify the rest.
SKIM CAREFULLY: Leo Marx, “The Idea of Nature in America”, in Zotero as a PDF and online (2008), 8–21. This reading provides an overview of many themes and ideas we’ll explore throughout the course. It will be very useful for you to be familiar with it, but we’ll do our own overview in class.

Noteworthy

Frédéric Ducarme and Denis Couvet, “What Does ‘Nature’ Mean?” (2020), 1–8.
John Hay, “The Nature Writer’s Dilemma” (1987), 7–10.

First Reading Reflections Due TODAY (10/19)

Please remember that you have a reading reflection due each day we have class. The instructions are on the home page of the syllabus that we discussed on Monday. Just to be clear: your reflections should be about the readings for TODAY (10/19). One of the main goals of the reflections is to help you prepare for class discussion. Remember, just one piece of paper, but double-sided printing is fine. They should be at least 300 words (which is a little less than a page), but showing more engagement gets you more points!

Week 2

10/24: Nature vs. Culture

Michael Pollan, Second Nature [Ch. 10: The Idea of a Garden] (1991), 176–201.
William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” (1996), 7–25.

Noteworthy

Frederick Turner, “Cultivating the American Garden” (1985), 45–52.

10/26: NO CLASS: Early Modern Nature

We’re not meeting today, but you should read the following and prepare the pre-class reflection as usual (to bring next Monday).

Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature [Ch. 5: Nature as Disorder] (1980), 127–148.
Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature [Ch. 7: Dominion over Nature] (1980), 164–190.

Noteworthy

Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (1967), 173–181.

Week 3

10/31: Early American Nature

Discussion of Early Modern Nature readings from last week
Carolyn Merchant, Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative [Chapters 4–6], 65–143.
George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the North American Indians (Letters 2 and 10), 14–22; 66–79.

Noteworthy

Richard White, “Discovering Nature in North America” (1992), 874–891.
Noel Perrin, “Forever Virgin: The American View of America” (1989), 13–22.
Arthur Ekirch, Jr., Man and Nature in America (1973) (2: The Agrarian Dream), 10–21.
American Georgics, 9–27.

11/2: NO CLASS: Romantic + Landscape Natures

Same drill as last week: no meeting today but a new topic to explore for your usual pre-class assignments and discussion on Monday.

Arthur Ekirch, Jr., Man and Nature in America [3: The Romantic View] (1973), 22–34.
Roderick Frazier Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind [4: The American Wilderness], 67–83.
Ronald Rees, “Constable, Turner, and Views of Nature in the Nineteenth Century” (1982), 253–69.
Thomas Cole, “Essay on American Scenery” American Monthly Magazine vol 1. (1836), 1–12.

Week 4

11/7: Transcendentalist Nature

Discussion of Romanic Nature from last week’s readings.
Arthur Ekirch, Jr., Man and Nature in America [Chs. 5 and 6: Emerson and Thoreau] (1973), 47–69.
Roderick Frazier Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind [9: The Wilderness Cult], 141–160.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836), 7–24 (SKIM through p. 53). These are really small pages, so it’s not as much reading as it seems. The idea is to get a sense of how Emerson thinks about nature, not read in great detail.
Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” (1851), 59–92.

11/9: Preserving and Conserving Nature

John M. Meyer, “Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and the Boundaries of Politics in American Thought” (1997), 267–84.
Kenneth R. Olwig, “Reinventing Common Nature”, 379–408.

Primary sources

In all cases, Remember the point isn’t to learn any details (like the intricacies of European forest management) but to understand the authors’ views of nature through their writings. Come to class prepared to discuss some passages that you found reveal conceptions of nature and the implications of such views.

Gifford Pinchot: Selected Writings, 21–33 (pay attention to the time and contexts when Pinchot wrote these short pieces and think about how those contexts may have informed his writing).
John Muir, Treasures of the Yosemite. (from The Century Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 4; August, 1890).
Theodore Roosevelt, “Wilderness Reserves: Yellowstone Park”, 152–160.
John Burroughs, “The Spell of Yosemite”, 169–175.

Noteworthy

Roderick Frazier Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind [10: Hetch Hetchy], 161–181.
John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), 3–25.

Week 5

11/14: NO CLASS! NO READINGS!! NO REFLECTIONS!!!

11/16: Environmental Ethics + Landscape Stories

Something of a smorgasbord for today. As always, read to see how nature is used/portrayed in whatever readings you select. What does nature mean to the author? How is it represented? Many of these authors have passionate views about how our relationship to nature should be. We’re not reading them because they are correct, but they present complementary views to how we’ve talked about nature so far. Please read to understand the general perspective and argument, even if you disagree with the gist of the reading.

Everyone should read both the Leopold and Carson directly below, and then pick one of two from each of the following section. Remember, it’s your job to show me you’re engaged with the readings via reflections and class participation.

Aldo Leopold, “The River of the Mother of God” (176–181); “The Land Ethic” from Sand County Almanac (181–195).
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 5–37.

Pick one (and be prepared to report on how nature is portrayed)

Jack Keroac, “Alone on a Mountaintop”, 218–228.
Edward Abbey, “Monkey Wrench Gang”, 251–267.

Pick one (and be prepared to discuss the intersection of landscape histories and conceptions of nature)

Leslie Marmon Silko, “Landscape, History and the Pueblo Imagination”, 83–94.
Keith H. Basso, “‘Stalking with Stories’: Names, Places, and Moral Narratives Among the Western Apache”, 95–116.

Pick one (and think about how maps and cartography inform ideas about nature)

J. B. Harley, “New England Cartography and the Native Americans”, 170–195.
Margaret Wickens Pearce and Renee Pualani Louis, “Mapping Indigenous Depth of Place” (2008): 107–126.

Noteworthy

J. B. Jackson, Sense of Place, A Sense of Time (1994), 15–25.
Aldo Leopold, “Wildlife in American Culture”, 1–6.
Roderick Frazier Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind [11: Aldo Leopold: Prophet], 182–199.
Miles A. Powell, “‘Pestered with Inhabitants’: Aldo Leopold, William Vogt, and More Trouble with Wilderness” (2015), 195–226.

Week 6

11/21: Real and Fake Nature

Anne Whiston Spirn, “Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmstead”, 91–113.
Bill McKibben, The End of Nature, [Ch. 2: The End of Nature] (1989), 40–78.

Some key questions for discussion that you should think and write about in your reflections for today:

What assumptions does McKibben make about nature? How might the book be different if he had been part of our class discussions?
Thinking about Sprin’s article, but also from the course generally, in what ways is nature “constructed”?
How much should we be worried about the end of nature if we can construct it? Or is that simply impossible by the very definition of nature/natural?
IN CLASS: Please think about this a little ahead of time, but don’t put it in your reflections: Colonization on Mars has just begun after finding a giant layer of ice buried beneath the surface that can yield significant but limited fresh water. You have been appointed the Director of Nature, and you need to provide a vision statement for how to create nature on Mars. What do you say? What are you priorities? How do you want to (or avoid) affect how colonists think about nature?

Noteworthy

N. Katherine Hayles, “Simulated Nature and Natural Simulations”, 409–425.

11/23: NO CLASS: EAT WELL!

Week 7

11/28: NO CLASS! NO READINGS!! NO REFLECTIONS!!!

11/30: Consuming Nature

James Morton Turner, “From Woodcraft to ‘Leave No Trace’”, 137–169.
Jennifer Price “Nature at the Mall”, 186–202.
Also in class: Nature on Instagram and Google Images. How do we interpret these images in light of course readings?

Noteworthy

Phoebe S. K. Young, Camping Grounds [Ch. 5: The Back-to-Nature Crowd], 195–240.

Week 8: FINALLY

12/5: Applying Nature: Natural Stuff

Our final day will have two parts:

Part 1

A main goal of this class is to facilitate critical exploration of how the idea of nature permeates so many things we interact with. Like childbirth. Like food. So how we can we apply definitions of nature (in general) as we’ve seen it change over time to something more specific like food (like we see in so many contexts now)?

Alan Levinovitz, Natural [Chapters 1 and 2], 15–34; 35–58.

Part 2

Course Wrap-up + Final reflection hints
William Cronon, “Toward a Conclusion” (from Uncommon Ground ), 447–459.

Noteworthy

Kate Soper, What is Nature?, 249–278.

12/7: NO CLASS. ANYMORE. EVER.

DUE: Final Course Reflection

Final Reflections should be submitted via email before you go to bed on Friday December 16h (or perhaps early Saturday morning). If you need a few more days, that’s fine, but email me to let me know (you don’t need to ask, just let me know). Grades are due in the middle of the week so there isn’t much more leeway I can give you, unless you want to take an Incomplete (which is fine if you have a specific plan for completing the work quickly).

See the final essay guide for more details. And review the revision guide after you’ve got a solid first draft!