english 39595
environmental literature & criticism
fall 2002
instructor/raymond craig

course description
"environmental literature and criticism" will provide students with the opportunity to examine how human interactions with the environment reflect cultural, political, and spiritual values in america. we will read significant works of literature, from emerson's "nature" and thoreau's walden to silko's ceremony and delillo's white noise, side-by-side with significant texts of ecocriticism, including buell's the environmental imagination and gaard and murphy's, ecofeminist literary criticism. in addition, the class will survey landscape painting and photography american artists (cole, bierstadt, adams, et al.) as well as a few popular films with environmental themes ("bladerunner" and "terminator 2" along side the more conventional "silkwood" or "erin brockovich"). students will have the opportunity to construct the course around the works i deem essential during the first week.

texts
these texts are ordered but not all will be required; students will construct their own reading lists

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire Ballantine Books; ISBN: 0345326490
Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination. Belknap Pr; ISBN: 0674258622
DeLillo, Don. White Noise. Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140274987
Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek. Harper Perennial; ISBN: 0060953020
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature"
Foreman, Dave. Ecodefense (foreward by Edward Abbey). Abbzug Pr; ISBN: 0963775103
Hogan, Linda. Mean Spirit. Ivy Books; ISBN: 0804108633
Gaard and Murphy, Ecofeminist Literary Criticism. Univ of Illinois Pr (Pro Ref); ISBN: 0252067088
Glotfelty and Fromm, The Ecocriticism Reader. Univ of Georgia Pr; ISBN: 0820317810
Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. Ballantine Books; ISBN: 0345345053
King. Clarence. Mountaining in the Sierra Nevada. Univ of Nebraska Pr; ISBN: 0803277830
Moraga, Cherrie. Heroes and Saints. University of New Mexico Press; ISBN: 0931122740
Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin Co; ISBN: 0395353513
Setterberg, Fred and Lonny Shavelson. Toxic Nation, The Fight to Save Our Communities from Chemical Contamination. John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471575453
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140086838
Snyder, Gary. Turtle Island. W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0811205460
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Beacon Pr; ISBN: 0807014230

requirements
to be constructed by students

grading

office hours
i am available by appointment and will be in my office (209d sfh) for consultation from 5.00 to 5.30 and 8.15 to 8.45 p.m. on tuesday and thursday each week. I encourage you to contact me via email at rcraig2@kent.edu with any questions or to arrange another meeting time.