Hum/En 43 - Nature Writing

Cultural theorist Raymond Williams once said that nature is "perhaps the most complex word in the language." And yet, when we think of nature, certain images probably come to mind-from oceans and rivers to forests and mountain peaks. Here, we will engage a long arc of environmental writing in the United States to investigate the conventions and contradictions of the "natural world." We will consider Transcendentalist and early environmentalist literature, as well as contemporary critiques of the nature-society divide, particularly as it relates to questions of race, class, and gender. Authors include Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Lauret Savoy, among others.