Ashton Nichols Syllabus

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MEST 200 / English 321

 Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East:

Art, Politics, and Battlegrounds

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Not until the twentieth century, did the Arab world begin to emerge to join the modern nations of the world. Many centuries of rule by Ottoman sultans had oppressed (suppressed? repressed?) these cultures—men as well as women—and prevented Middle Eastern culture from expressing the full energy, freedom, and artistic riches that have originated in ancient times and now come to us in our modern and contemporary societies.

From Morocco and North Africa to the Arabian Gulf and Israel, the nations of Middle East have had, and continue to have, a powerful influence, artistic as well as political, over Europe and North America. Our class will explore poetry that has emerged from the Mideast in recent decades, lyrics that express the complex emotions and human realities that have created these cultures that increasingly effect, and are affected by, the Western world.

Arab (and especially Islamic) cultures continue to reflect not only the realities, but also the biases, of the Europeans who did the historical describing of this world: religious, political, social, and aesthetic. The poems of Rumi (one of the best-selling poets in all of America today), Adonis, Khalil Gibran, and Iqbal al-Qazwini come to use from an Arab context, while Yehuda Amichai, Tamir Greenberg, and Hedva Harechavi come to us from an Israeli world that is—and is not—like the Jewish world we know in America. These poets, Arab and Israeli, among others, have contributed to a contemporary American version of love, of hatred, of war, and of reconciliation in what may be the most contested acreage, the most fought-over geography, on the small planet we all share.

Required Texts:

Chang, Tina, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Shankar, eds. Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. New York and London: Norton, 2008.

Keller, Tsipi, sel. & trans. Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry. Albany, NY: State U of New York P, 2008.

Schwedler, Jillian, ed. Understanding the Contemporary Middle East. Boulder, CO & London: Lynne Rienner, 2013

(–class handouts and numerous assigned web readings)

Course Aims and Learning Goals:

Our goal in all of our work will be to see the contemporary Middle East reflected, refracted, and reimagined by these poets in the minds of mostly Western and Eastern readers. We will work to understand how literary texts can help us to understand the complexities of cultures and cultural interactions. The course will focus attention on critical approaches to literary genres and literary methods of interpretation that will help students develop more sophisticated reading skills, and interpretive abilities, as they move toward the senior seminar year.

Course Requirements

Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, two essays (6-8 pp. [close reading], 12-15 pp. [more than one author]), and a take-home final exam. The first essay will allow you to offer a close reading of one specific texts. The second essay will require that you provide a specific critical approach for research into works by more than one author. Assignment sheets for both essays will be distributed well before essay due dates. The comprehensive final exam will be composed of essay questions. Class participation will include written exercises and student-led discussion introductions. More than two (2) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade in this course. If you need to miss class, and you do not want your grade to suffer, make sure you bring me a valid College excuse or discuss your situation with me.

Grading

Grading will be based on the following scale:

Class participation (including discussion intros.) Essay 1—Essay 2—Final Exam

                                                          20             20         30          30 =100%

Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time during the semester to discuss the course, our readings, your writing, or your grade:

Academic Honesty

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. See me is you have questions.

Statement on Disability Services

In compliance with the Dickinson College policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss requests made by students with disabilities for academic accommodations. Such requests must be verified in advance by the Coordinator of Disability Services who will provide a signed copy of an accommodation letter, which must be presented to me prior to any accommodations being offered. Requests for academic accommodations should be made during the first three weeks of the semester (except for unusual circumstances) so that timely and appropriate arrangements can be made. Students requesting accommodations are required to register with Disability Services, located in Academic Advising, first floor of Biddle House. Please contact Marni Jones, Coordinator of Disability Services (at ext. 1080 or jonesmar@dickinson.edu ) to verify their eligibility for reasonable and appropriate accommodations.

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Professor Ashton Nichols: K 192 Class meetings: M TH 1:30-2:45 p.m.

Office Hours: M, W, TH 12-1:30 p.m. and by appt.  Classroom: K 178 ________________________________________________________________

Reading Schedule and Class Meetings

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January 21 M Contemporary Poetry of the Middle East—syllabus as a text (Edward Said on YouTube)

24 Th Edward Said On Orientalism (online) & UCME: 1

28 M YouTube Usman Hameedi: “Poem Postmarked for the Middle East”

31 Th LNC (Two poems by Middle Eastern Poets) & UCME 2

February 4 M Norton “Romantic Orientalism” (online) + images & texts & Assign Essay #1 (compare and contrast)

7 Th LNC (Two poems by Middle Eastern Poets) & UCME 3

11 M LNC (Two poems by Middle Eastern Poets)

14 Th LNC (Two Poems by Middle Eastern Poets) & UCME 4

18 M Essay #1 due: formalist reading + in-class essay workshop

21 Th LNC (Two poems by Middle Eastern Poets) & UCME 5

25 M LNC (Two Poems by Middle Eastern Poets)

28 Th Rumi: “Poems by Rumi” (See: https://www.khamush.com/poems.html)  UCME 6

March 4 M Rumi (find two poems) & Assign Essay #2

7 Th Rumi (find two poems) & UCME 7

11 M SPRING BREAK

14 Th SPRING BREAK

18 M POE Hebrew Poetry 1-55

21 Th POE Hebrew Poetry 55-108 & UCME 8

25 M POE Hebrew Poetry 108-185

28 Th POE Hebrew Poetry 185-236 & UCME 9 (Essay prospectus due)

April 1 M POE Hebrew Poetry 236-277

4 Th POE Hebrew Poetry 277-327 & UCME 10

8 M Mahmoud Darwish: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/this-palestinian-poem-on-jerusalem-is-finding-new-life

11 Th Mahmoud Darwish: https://lithub.com/in-palestinian-poetry-the-long-transition-from-political-to-personal/ & UCME 11

15 M Palestinian Poems: https://culturacolectiva.com/books/mahmoud-darwish-poetry

18 Th Palestinian Poems: (find one) & UCME 12 (Annotated essay bibliography due)

22 M Palestinian Poets (Fadwa Tuqan) & Female writers: https://arablit.org/2017/03/08/for-international-womens-day-5-poets-you-should-know-in-english-translation

25 Th Palestinian Poets: (find one) & UCME 13

29 M Course Review and Create Take-Home Final Exam

May 2 Th Take-Home Final Exam distributed & Essay #2 due in class & UCME 14

May 7 5:00 p.m. Take-home FINAL EXAM DUE (K 192: paper or email)

Calm Lab (only if this is your first 300-level class in the English Department)

If this is your first 300-level class in the English Department, you need to make sure that you registered for English 300, the “Critical Approaches and Literary Methods Laboratory,” colloquially known as CALM Lab. Please make sure you have registered for this lab (in the way that you regularly register for a class), enrolling in English 300.

The syllabus for that lab includes two class meetings (in the evening) and written assignments connected to these meetings. If you have questions about the CALM Lab, please contact Chris Bombaro [bombaroc@dickinson.edu] in the Waidner-Spahr Library. She is the instructor for the CALM Lab and can answer any questions you may have. I will work closely with her on your CALM lab sessions and will attend at least one of the evening classes.

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What Others have said about Contemporary Poetry of the Middle East

The European Romantic imagination was saturated with Orientalism, but it reflected persistent ambivalence concerning the East, complicated in Britain by colonial anxiety and imperial guilt. The craze for sensual and sensational escapism ushered in by the Arabian Nights entertainment had involved a voyeuristic invasion of the seraglio. Romantic writers were also absorbed by that fragrant and forbidden space, but was such Oriental escapism at odds with their social and political concerns?

Exactly how did their words reflect contemporary cultural and imperial encounters with Asia and blur the margins of imaginative and actual power? Key issues . . . include cultural stereotypes such as the contemptuous misogyny and capricious cruelty of the Oriental despot; liberty and libertinism; the earthly paradise; and the longing for the feminized dream of the East.                                                                                                           —Michael J. Franklin

In numerous Romantic literary works, the exotic East is represented in complex, multivalent terms. Asia in these texts is described as inviting yet mysterious, beautiful yet fearful, alternately beguiling and terrifying in the diversity of it natural and human riches. The very concept of such natural riches became a crucial part of the discourse of empire. Ever since Edward Said’s Orientalism appeared in 1978, scholars have debated the extent to which Western culture misrepresented Asia in the production of these varying discourses of domination.

Critiques of Orientalism have focused primarily on human culture, yet it is clear that representations of the natural world were another important site for Western appropriation and construction of the “East.” Just as European writers sought to provide a history for those part of the world that seemed to lack a history, natural historians from the mid-eighteenth century onward offered textual accounts of previously undescribed versions of “Nature.”

Like so many versions of Asia seen through the eyes of Occidentals, nonhuman nature produced a Western narrative (where had these alien parts of nature originated? how had they done so); Western categories (kingdoms, classes, and species); and textual and visual records (here is what I saw in Syria; here is what a tiger or panda bear looks like) of a world beyond European society. Visions of the Eastern world took shape in the West, first merely to be described, later in order to be classified, and finally to be appropriated or conquered.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       –Ashton Nichols

“Other Arab-American, Arab, and Islamic poets are of course presenting work concerned with the crucial intersections of faith, politics, culture and war, but what makes Nye very special and worthwhile in this book is her constant focus on her own experience and the personal journey she’s undertaken. Beyond the emphasis on the Middle East, she has a more personal focus on her own father and his journey to America.” — Coal Hill Review

Adonis (Ali Ahmen Said), a two-time Nobel finalist and the author of more than 20 books of poetry, prose and literary criticism, is arguably the leading Arabic poet in the world. As he states in his preface, “Poetry is . . . a perpetual beginning,” and many of the poems in this collection, whether lyrical, fantastical or revelatory, are imbued with a mystical timelessness; a style that echoes the pre-Islamic poetry of Sufism; and a linguistic sensibility that prefers the simple, more accessible image over the intellectualized imagery of Western poetry.

The long poem “Transformations of the Lover” celebrates sexual union with such energy that the poem is elevated to an intensely spiritual level: “My body started to prepare itself for something / like the fall of planets. . . Your body is April itself, and every part / of you becomes a dove that speaks my name.” But the most engaging portion of the collection comes in the form of a brief concluding essay in which Adonis addresses the difficulties faced by a poet writing in Arabic–a language that was, at least for him, nullified with the advent of Islam. This is an immensely satisfying new collection of poems–continuing the poet’s restless, metaphysical exploration into “everything strange.”                                                                                                                                              —Publisher’s Weekly

Three wars. 13 years of fighting. 1.9 trillion dollars. Over 10,000 American lives lost in terrorist attacks and conflicts in the Middle East, more than any other part of the world. America’s relationship with the Middle East directly impacts its security. Confronting extremism begins with empowering moderates. Learn about the visionaries in the Middle East actively working to transform their societies. And explore what it takes to be a peace-builder in your community.                                                                                                                                         —https://euphrates.org/

Class meetings: 1:30 p.m. M & TH, Office Hours: M & TH 12-1:30 p.m. and by appt., Classroom: K

 

 

 

 

 

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English 379 – – – – -Thoreau, Leopold, Abbey, McKibben – – – – – Nichols

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Required Texts:

Walden, or Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau, G. W. Zouck

The Portable Thoreau, Henry David Thoreau, Penguin

A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, Ballantine/Random House

The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays, Aldo Leopold, Wisconsin

Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey, Touchstone/Simon Shuster

The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey, Harper Perennial

The End of Nature, Bill McKibben, Anchor Doubleday

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben, Times Books

(–class handouts and assigned web readings)

Course Aims and Learning Goals:

One of the best was to study any body of literature is by way of master practitioners of the craft of writing. These writers emphasize the role played by nonhuman nature in a wide range of human activity. They also interrogate the ways that human interactions with nature (plants, animals, geology, landscapes) have affected human life and the natural world. Some of these authors have environmentalist or preservationist agendas at times; others are more interested in the philosophical and cultural implications of human understanding of and impact on the natural environment. We will set their literary works in dialogue with scientists and nature writers of the past two centuries and will examine the current importance (as well as the controversial aspects) of their wide-ranging ideas.

We will also emphasize the role played by literature in the development of our own assumptions and values. The course will focus attention on critical approaches and literary methods and will help students develop more sophisticated research skills as they move toward the senior-seminar year. We will work to answer a series of questions about the relationship between the natural world and the human beings who have defined and affected that world. Our guides will include four (4) writers and eight books (8) as well as references to other ecocritics, poets, novelists, essayists, and ourselves. We will examine the current importance (as well as the controversial aspects) of environmental ideas, and we will emphasize the role played by literature in the development of our own assumptions and values. We will hone students’ research skills (abstract, annotated bibliography, research paper) in preparation for their work in English 403 and 404

Useful Websites for Thoreau, Leopold, Abbey, McKibben:

Henry David Thoreau:

https://www.walden.org/thoreau/

Aldo Leopold:

https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/

Edward Abbey:

http://www.abbeyweb.net/

Bill McKibben:

http://www.billmckibben.com/

Charles Darwin Online:

http://darwin-online.org.uk/

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/darwin/index.html

Course Requirements

Students will come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings for each day. Discussion will form a central part of class work, and students will sign up for two (2) discussion introductions based on our weekly reading schedule. Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, two critical essays (8-10 pp., 12-15 pp.), and a comprehensive take-home final exam. (Your first essay will ask you to select a chapter from Walden and write your own interpretation of this chapter. Your second essay will ask you to write a research essay that explains why at least two of these authors are essential to an understanding of environmental literature.) Class participation will include written exercises and discussion introductions.

Two (2) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade in the course. The first essay will allow you to work closely with a single text; the second will require that you provide a critical context for research into works by several authors. Assignment sheets for both essays will be distributed at least three weeks before the essay due dates. Here are the departmental writing guidelines you will need for each essay:

http://www.dickinson.edu/info/20111/english/748/writing_guidelines

The class will emphasize research skills and methods useful for scholarly research and writing, both in class and through your work with the C.A.L.M. Lab workshop, if this is your first 300-level course. The comprehensive final exam will be composed entirely of essay questions.

Grading Based on These Percentages:

Class participation (10%) Two (2) Discussion Intros (10%) Essay 1 (20% Essay 2 (30%) Final Exam (30%) = 100%

Students must complete all of the assigned work in order to pass the course.

Readings for Thoreau, Leopold, Abbey, McKibben             

January 23 M   Our syllabus —Our syllabus as a Text—-Our class as a Dialogue

26 H   Thoreau, Walden 5-99
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30 M    Walden 99-189

Feb. 2 H  Walden 189-271
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6 M  Walden  271-end 

9 H   Portable Thoreau xi-73
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13 M   Portable Thoreau 73-163

16 H     Portable Thoreau 163-190 and 469-499
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20 M    Sand County Almanac  3-101

23 H     Sand County Almanac  237-end
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27 M   River of the Mother ix-47  Workshop draft of ESSAY #1

March 2 H    River of the Mother   47-106
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6 M    River of the Mother 123-128 Essay #1 due (interpretation of one chapter in Thoreau’s Walden)

9 H    River of the Mother 181-209 and 301-320
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13 M  Spring Break

16 H   Spring Break
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20 M    Desert Solitaire xi-95

23 H   Desert Solitaire 95-end
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27 M   Monkey Wrench  xv-98

30 H   Monkey Wrench 98-205
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April 3  M Monkey Wrench 205-311Research abstract for Essay #2 due (start of class)

6 H  Monkey Wrench  311-end
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10 M  Monkey Wrench  P.S. 2-25

13 H   End of Nature, Part I             _______________________________________________________________

17 M  End of Nature, Part II Annotated Bibliography for Essay #2: (start of class )

20 H   Eaarth xi-47
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24  M  Eaarth  47-213

27 H Eaarth  213 -241 __________________________________________________________

May 1 M Summary and Exam writing; identifications, short answers, essay questions)

4 H Last Class and Discussion of Take-Home Final (Class evaluation): ESSAY #2 DUE
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Friday, May 12, 5:00 p.m. Take-home due Kaufman 192 – (NO LATE EXAMS)
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Calm Lab (only if this is your first 300-level class in the English Department)

If this is your first 300-level class in the English Department, you need to make sure that you registered for English 300, the “Critical Approaches and Literary Methods Laboratory,” colloquially known as CALM Lab. Please make sure you have registered for this lab (in the way that you regularly register for a class), enrolling in English 300.

The syllabus for that lab includes two class meetings (in the evening) and written assignments connected to these meetings. If you have questions about the CALM Lab, please contact Chris Bombaro [bombaroc@dickinson.edu] in the Waidner-Spahr Library. She is the instructor for the CALM Lab and can answer any questions you may have. I will work closely with her on your CALM lab sessions and will attend at least one of the evening classes.   

Academic Honesty

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. Students have failed to graduate from Dickinson on-time based on academic honesty issues in 404; please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about citation, documentation, or academic honesty in relation to your thesis.

Statement on Disability Services

In compliance with the Dickinson College policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss requests made by students with disabilities for academic accommodations. Such requests must be verified in advance by the Coordinator of Disability Services who will provide a signed copy of an accommodation letter, which must be presented to me prior to any accommodations being offered. Requests for academic accommodations should be made during the first three weeks of the semester (except for unusual circumstances) so that timely and appropriate arrangements can be made.

Students requesting accommodations are required to register with Disability Services, located in Academic Advising, first floor of Biddle House.  Please contact Marni Jones, Coordinator of Disability Services (at ext. 1080 or jonesmar@dickinson.edu ) to verify their eligibility for reasonable and appropriate accommodations.   

     Questions to Consider

Are human beings just the result of random evolutionary processes over time? Is that all they are?

“Be fruitful and multiply.”–Is that a good idea? Is that a waste? Does evolution necessarily conflict with the religious teachings of Christianity? Can the two viewpoints–religious and scientific–be reconciled?

Why does Christianity say that God cannot be a part of the natural world? What problem/s does that pose for literature?

What is the connection between environmentalism and planetary climate change?           

Why has thinking about the nonhuman world had such a powerful impact on poets and novelists over the past 150 years?

When do poets and scientists think in similar ways? When do they think in different ways?

 Is AIDS natural? Is spinal bifida? Is death? Is nature “good”? Is anything “natural” ever “evil”? _______________________________________________________________
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                   What Writers Have Said About the Nonhuman World

“In looking at the objects of Nature while I am thinking, as at yonder moon dim-gleaming through the dewy window-pane, I seem rather to be seeking, as it were asking for, a symbolical language for something within me that already and for ever exists, than observing anything new. Even when the latter is the case, yet still I have always an obscure feeling as if that new phenomena were a dim awakening of a forgotten or hidden truth of my inner nature.” (1805)–Coleridge, Anima Poetae

“A Poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity–he is continually in for–and filling some other Body–The Sun, the Moon, the Sea and Men and Women who are creatures of impulse are poetical and have about them an unchangeable attribute–the poet has none; no identity–” Keats, Letters

“How much virtue there is in simply seeing! . . . We are as much as we see . . . Every child begins the world again. . . I saw this familiar–too familiar–fact at a different angle, and I was charmed and haunted by it . . . Only what we have touched and worn is trivial,–our scurf, repetition, tradition, conformity. To perceive freshly, with fresh senses, is to be inspired . . . The age of miracles is each moment thus returned.” –Thoreau, Works

“In a Romantic poem the realm of the ideal is always observed as precarious–liable to vanish or move beyond one’s reach at any time. Central Romantic poems like “Ode to a Nightingale” or “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” typify this situation in the Romantic poem, which characteristically haunts, as Geoffrey Hartman has observed, borderlands and liminal territories. These are Romantic places because they locate areas of contradiction, conflict, and problematic alternatives.” –Jerome McGann, The –Jerome McGann, The Romantic Ideology

What Critics Have Said About Nature

“Ecocriticism can be further characterized by distinguishing it from other critical approaches. Literary theory, in general, examines the relations between writers, texts, and the world. In most literary theory “the world” is synonymous with society–the social sphere. Ecocriticism expands the notion of “the world” to include the entire ecosphere. If we agree with Barry Commoner’s first law of ecology, “Everything is connected to everything else,” we must conclude that literature does not float above the material world in some aesthetic ether, but, rather, plays a part in an immensely complex global system, in which energy, matter, and ideas interact.” –Glotfelty and Fromm

Ashton Nichols: Kaufman 192, Class meetings: 3:00 M H, Office Hours: M H 11-1:30 p.m. and by appt., Classroom: K 178   

ENST 111 / ENGL 101                                                       Fall 2018  _________________________________________________________

American Nature Writing:

Environment, Culture, Values

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Required Texts: 

American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. Ed. Bill McKibben, Library of America

Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting, Ashton Nichols, Palgrave Macmillan

Walden, or Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau, G. W. Zouck

A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There, Aldo Leopold, Ballantine/Random House

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, Edward Abbey, Touchstone/Simon Shuster

The End of Nature, Bill McKibben, Anchor Doubleday

Course Objectives & Learning Goals: 

What does American nature writing have to do with the environment, culture, and values? A great deal. What does great literature have to do with nonfictional observation of nature? A surprising amount. Our course will survey writings by a wide range of authors: young and old, male and female, northern and southern, black and white. We will set these works in dialogue with environmental questions of the past two centuries: wilderness and species preservation, appreciation of wild nature, pollution. The course will also study language, literary styles, and the link between literature and “environment, culture, and values.” Our texts will be literary and scientific. Our contexts will be environmental, ethical, and ecological. We will work to answer questions about the relationship between the natural world and human beings who have defined and affected that world. Are humans just part of nature? Are we distinct from nature? Is nature beautiful and benign (sunsets, daffodils, puffins) or ugly and destructive (hurricanes, AIDS, death)? How and why should we preserve nature? Why is climate change considered the major challenge facing the modern world? We will try to understand how literary texts reflect the context of the times in which they were produced and also the times in which they have been received by readers. Our guides will include novelists, essayists, and ourselves. We will examine the current importance (as well as the controversial aspects) of evolutionary ideas, and we will emphasize the role played by literature in the development of our own environmental assumptions and values.

Useful Websites for American Nature Writing at Online Syllabus: 

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/syllabus/2017/01/25/american-nature-writing-environment-culture-values/

Romantic Natural History

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/romnat/

Nature Writing (1791-2009) 

https://sites.google.com/site/thoreauandwilderness/American-Nature-Writing

Berkeley History of Evolution

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_01

Walden Woods

https://www.walden.org/

Edward Abbey

http://www.abbeyweb.net/

Aldo Leopold

https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/

Bill McKibben

http://www.billmckibben.com/

Urbanatural Roosting Web Portal

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/urbanaturalroosting/

Required Work:

 Students will be required to read carefully and come to class prepared to discuss all assigned work. Reading quizzes and in-class writing will contribute to discussions. Discussion will form an important part of your evaluation in this course. More than two (2) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade. You must complete all required work in order to pass this class.

Grading Based on the Following Scale:

Class participation 10% (includes group work):
Short essay (one work) 20%: Long essay (authors/works) 30%: Final exam 40% : Total = 100%

The short essay (4-5 pp.) will ask you to analyze a single text. The longer essay (9-10 pp.) will ask you to connect at least one work to the culture in which it was produced. The final exam will be cumulative. I am available during office hours and by appointment to discuss the course, our readings, your writing, or your grade. 

Academic Honesty

 The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the College’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information.

Accommodating Students with Disabilities

Dickinson College makes reasonable academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students requesting accommodations must make their request and provide appropriate documentation to Disability Services in Biddle House. Because classes change every semester, eligible students must obtain a new accommodation letter from Director Marni Jones every semester and review this letter with their professors so the accommodations can be implemented. The Director of Disability Services is available by appointment to answer questions and discuss any implementation issues you may have. Disability Services proctoring is managed by Susan Frommer at 717-254-8107 or proctoring@dickinson.edu. Address general inquiries to Stephanie Anderberg at 717-245-1734 or e-mail disabilityservices@dickinson.edu.

 Professor Ashton Nichols: K 192  

Class meetings: 1:30-2:45 p.m. M TH

Office Hours: M & TH  12:00-1:30 p.m. W 12:00-1:30 p.m. & by appt.  Classroom: Kaufman 186

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Readings for American Nature Writing    

September 3 M  American Nature Writing–our syllabus as a text) [Deb Peters]

6 TH American Earth, xvii-xx, xxi-1, and Thoreau Journal’s 1-8

10 M  Walden, Thoreau Introductions, 5-10, 11-21 and 22-98

13 TH  Walden 99-188

17 M Walden  189-284

20 TH Walden  285-end Writing About Literature: Assign Essay #1

24 M George Catlin, Lydia Sigourney, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Table Rock 37-61

27  TH  Walt Whitman, George Perkins Marsh, P. T. Barnum 62-83

October 1 John Muir, W. H. H. Murray, Frederick Law Olmstead 84-125

4 TH  John Burroughs, Gifford Pinchot 145-180

8 M  N. Darling, Don Marquis 224-238 (pictures) Workshop Essay #1 due in class

11 TH   Sand County Almanac Introduction-136

15 M  Sand County Almanac 137 (“Thinking Like a Mountain”)-end   Assign Essay #2 

18 TH  Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, Russell Baker 359-380 + Darwin (Outline Below)

22 M FALL PAUSE

25 TH  Lynn White, Paul Erlich, Garrett Hardin 405-412, 435-450

29 M Philip Dick, 451-453, Blade Runner Trailer “She’s a Replicant”  Film Clip

November 1 TH Desert Solitaire Introduction-150

5 M Desert Solitaire 151-end

8 TH Gary Snyder 473-479, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye 489-492 + Big Yellow Taxi  Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)

12 M Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard 505-549

15  TH  N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko 570-590, Linda Hogan 809-14

19 M  A Fierce Green Fire: film in class

22 TH  THANKSGIVING

26 M Alice Walker 659-671, Cesar Chavez 690-696

29 TH Urbanatural Roosting xiii-xxiii, 3-101

December 3 M Urbanatural Roosting 103-212

6 TH   The End of Nature xiii-xxiv + 1-81 [You Tube: Bill McKibben at Dickinson & Global Warming: David Letterman talks with Bill McKibben. 08/31/10]

10 M The End of Nature 82-end (Final set of pictures, 736-737) [YouTube: Do the Math]

13 TH Exam Review–Essay #2 due in class


December 20, Thurs, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.  FINAL EXAM IN CLASSROOM K186

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Terms to Consider

TEXT: n.1. main body of matter in a manuscript, book, newspaper, distinguished from notes, appendixes, headings, illustrations. 2. the actual, original words of an author or speaker. 3. any of the various forms in which a writing exists. [ME, ML text(us) wording, L: structure (of an utterance), texture.]

CONTEXT:  n. 1. parts of written or spoken statement that precede or follow a word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect. 2. circumstances that surround a particular event, situation, etc. [late ME, L context(us) joining together].

LITERATURE: n. 1. writing regarded as having permanent worth through its intrinsic excellence. 2. The entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc. 3. the writings dealing with a particular subject: the literature of ornithology.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nature and Humans: Questions to Consider

Are human beings just the mere result of random evolutionary processes over time? Is that all they are?

“Be fruitful and multiply.”–Is that a good idea? Is that a waste?

Is AIDS natural? Is spinal bifida? Is death? Is nature “good”?

Does evolution necessarily conflict with the religious teachings of Christianity? Can the two viewpoints–religious and scientific–be reconciled?

Nature could not care less about you or me? Or could it?

                                                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *                                                                Darwin and Darwinism

                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

–“You can’t wash the slugs out of your lettuce without disrespect to your ancestors.”–Ruskin

–“The growth of a large business is merely survival of the fittest.” –John D. Rockefeller

What were the scientific implications of Darwin’s theory?
I. The principle of natural selection determines the survival of species.
II. Species have not existed forever in their present form: Galapagos endemism.
A. Each life form on earth is undergoing continual change.
B. These changes result from chance mutations.
III. The earth and life on earth have existed for an inconceivably long time. (Lyell,
Principles of Geology, 1830)
IV. A record of the earlier stages of evolution can be found in fossils and in the anatomy
of living creatures. (Chambers, Vestiges of Creation, 1844)
What were the wider implications of the theory?
I. Natural laws
A. The laws of nature are subject to change because the material conditions that
govern those laws can change.
1.) cooperation: symbiosis or parasitism?
2.) competition: the fittest?
B. There are no “ideals” in nature or natural form.
1.) what is “right” is what succeeds over time.
2.) evolutionary success: shark, horseshoe crab, cockroach
3.) evolutionary  failure: dinosaur, human brain (?)
II. Theology–“It is just as noble a conception of the deity to believe he created primal
forms capable of self-development.” –Canon Charles Kingsley
A. Man is no longer viewed as unique
1.) end-product of creation?
2.) human’s “mental moral and spiritual qualities evolved by precisely the
same processes that gave the eagle its claws and the tapeworm its hooks.”
B. Doubts about the Biblical account of human origins and fate emerge.
1.) 4004 B.C. vs. billions of years
2.) Adam and Eve vs. The Descent of Man
3.) creation as a continuous and self-modifying process
4.) destruction as likewise ongoing and accidental.
III. Social Darwinism
A.  All sciences are historical
1.) science always subject to revision (non-Euclidean geometry)
2.) no laws, only theories (quantum physics)
3.) science is “true” based on best possible evidence
4.) science is never about faith; it is only about knowledge
B. Social order is a “struggle for existence.”
1.) revolutionary change: Marxist ideology
2.) laissez-faire capitalism
3.) do the ends always justify the means?

 

ENGL 212: Writing About Natural History

 

 Required Texts:

Fergus, Charles. Wildlife of Pennsylvania: And the Northeast.

Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual 5e.

Harrison, Ralph. The Elk of Pennsylvania. (Wingert)

Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.

Leopold, Also. A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There.

Nichols, Ashton. Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting.

Warner, William. Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and the Chesapeake Bay.

Put your last name, first name here. Natural History Field Notebook.

Online dictionaries: Oxford English for advanced definitions: http://www.oed.com

Merriam-Webster for regular use: http://www.britannica.com/  Dickinson website.

Handouts and required written classroom exercises

Course Aims and Expectations:

This course is designed to improve your skills as a writer of expository prose by emphasizing the genre of natural history writing. We will concentrate on a variety of writing problems and techniques, emphasizing specific skills necessary to a wide range of writing tasks: description, summary, narration, argumentation, analysis, and interpretation. In all cases, our focus will be on the natural world, natural history, and human connections to that world. Our numerous field trips to museums and field experiences in the wilds of Pennsylvania and beyond (Virginia, North Carolina) will form the basis of much of our writing. You will keep your own natural history journal that begins today and ends on the final day of classes, when it will be handed in; this journal will record, analyze, and otherwise create an experiential and intellectual document of your experiences with the nonhuman world during our entire semester. So, some of your writing will take place in the field or near the field, some more of it in the library or at your desk. Discussions of essay reading assignments will be supplemented by group workshop sessions and individual tutorials. Students will have the opportunity to critique one another’s work and to compare their essays to works by natural history writers of the past and present. The course aims to concentrate your attention on the precise stylistic details that lead to effective writing. 

 

Essay Requirements:

–All essays must be typed: one-inch margins & double-spaced

–Assignments will specify a precise length for each essay

–Essays must be stapled or paper-clipped together

–Title page must include title, the author’s name, and the due date

–Essays due in class at 10:30 a.m. on the syllabus indicated date

–NO LATE PAPERS (or drafts) WILL BE ACCEPTED

Web Sites for Writers and Nature Writers

Dickinson Writing Center

English Department Writing Guidelines

Online Resources for Writers

Virginia Commonwealth University Nature Writing Web Links 

Grading:

Grades will be based on the following distribution:

Essay   1   2   3   4       Revision   In-Class Journal Exam-revision    Writing 
    :                   .        10  10  10 10             20            10          10               20                = 100%

Students must complete all of these requirements in order to receive credit for the course. 

Class Meetings, Readings, & Due dates: 
(T Th 10:30 a.m., K 152)

_____________________

August 29 M: 9:30 -10:20 First class meeting of full Mosaic, Introduction, Kaufman 152

August 30 Tu: 10:30 a.m.-11:45 Syllabus in-class writing: what is “nature”? What is “natural history”?

September 1 Th: Continue with in-class writing and online nature writing.

_____________________

6 Tu   Essay #1 due (a natural object: assignment sheet attached). Provisional grade is dropped if it goes up on September 22 version (see below). 
 

8 Th   Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac. xiii-xix, pp. 3-137. What is good nature writing?

 

______________________________________________________

13  Tu   In-class exercise (sentences from essays). Hacker & Sommers, “Clarity,” pp. 1-18

15 Th  Aldo Leopold, pp. 138 to end, Hacker & Sommers, “Grammar,” pp. 19-53,

______________________

20 Tu  9:00 a.m. Class Visit: Discussion with nine (9) students in the Natural History Sustainability Mosaic II with Dr. Ashton Nichols, Dr. Marcus Key, and Gene Wingert, in Kaufman 152: Elizabeth Kolbert is The New Yorker’s nature writer and author, most recently of The Sixth Extinction: and Unnatural History: Bring two (2) written or typed-out questions for our guest, based on your reading of her remarkable work. Like Bill McKibben (The End of Nature) and John McPhee (The Control of Nature) before her, Kolbert’s book began as a series of essays in the magazine

22 Th  Essay #1 revised (a natural object). Hand in for a final grade. Workshop.

____________________________

27 Tu No class (begin work on Essay #2)

29 Th  Vocabulary handout. Hacker & Sommers, “Punctuation,” pp. 55-74

____________________________

October 4 T  CHESAPEAKE BAY TRIP (Beautiful Swimmers, first half)

6 Th    CHESAPEAKE BAY TRIP (finish Beautiful Swimmers for thorough discussion)

_____________________________

11 Tu ELK COUNTY TRIP  Read and bring The Elk of Pennsylvania booklet

13 Th  Finish Sand County Almanac (for class discussion)

14 Fri   Essay # 2 due (narration: submit electronically)

______________________________

18 Tu   FALL PAUSE (NO CLASS) 


20 Th  In-class exercise: “To see the wind with a man his eyes.” Hacker & Sommers, “Mechanics,” pp. 76-87   Charles Fergus, Wildlife of Pennsylvania. Pick a single CAPITALIZED SECTION from this book [ex. COYOTE, ELK, PUDDLE DUCKS, WILD TURKEY, LAND SALAMANDERS, POND AND MARSH TURTLES, WATER SNAKE]). At the start of class hand in a single double-spaced page about why this entry in Fergus’s book is well-written, using examples of language as details; then be prepared with notes to tell the class why your entry is well-written.

________________________________

23 Sunday: Depart for Kiptopeke, 10:00 a.m., Kaufman parking lot.

25 Tu  Depart Kiptopeke for fossil sites near Jamestown, VA

26 Wed  Return to Carlisle from Virginia

27 Th Hawks plus fossils plus assignment of Essay #3.

_________________________________

November 1 T   Your field journal as a text. Bring your best paragraph, typed with copies for 12. Hacker & Sommers,  “Research,” pp. 88-103

3 Th Continue field journals until nine (9) are complete. Vote.

__________________________________

8 T    Essay #3 due, analyze Leopold’s or Kolbert’s writing style.

10 Th  Animal rights: class positions, debate and discuss

__________________________________

15 T    Essay #4 (bring draft notes for essay) Hacker & Sommers, Glossaries, pp. 259-278

16 Wed   Depart for Pittsburgh–Phipps Conservatory on arrival

17 Th  Carnegie Museum of Natural History (all day).

18 Fri   National Aviary and return to Carlisle

___________________________________

22 T   Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism xii-101. Link to your own experiences this term. In-class writing. 


24 Th  THANKSGIVING

___________________________________

29 T   Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting 104-208. Bring two (2) questions for the author

DECEMBER 1 Th  FINAL CLASS Essay #4 due (animal rights: interpretation)

2 Fri  Draft of IR/IS projects due 5:00 p.m. K 192

___________________________________

8 Th  1st Revision Due in Kaufman 192 by 2:00 P.M. (Essays 2-4)

___________________________________

13 Tu 1:30 p.m. Presentations of IR/IS project results

December 14 Wed  FINAL EXAM (2nd Revision) due in Kaufman 192 by 5:00 p.m.

16 Friday Final IR/IS due 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. FINAL MOSAIC DINNER (Creekside Farm: 580 McClures Gap Rd.)

___________________________________

Professor Ashton Nichols

Office Hours T Th 1-3 p.m. Kaufman 192, ext.1660

********************************************  

Essay #1

A Natural Object

Spend at least one uninterrupted hour observing a natural object. The object can be large (star, sun, cloud, mountain), small (grain of sand, flower, ant, leaf) or in between (stream, tree, turkey vulture, rock). Your object should be one that had not been shaped or visibly affected by humans. You should observe it as carefully as possible. Do not engage in any other activity (conversation, writing, reading, etc.) during your observation. No Walkmans allowed!

What did you learn as a result of this experience? Write a 750-1,000 word (three to four typed pages) essay that explains to the members of our class what you knew at the end of this hour that you did not know before your observation began. Write with care and attention to the precise details of your experience. Your essay should have a thesis (a central controlling idea) and a clear organizational principle (chronological, psychological association, logical progression). Avoid errors of grammar, syntax, and spelling. Proofread you work carefully.

This essay is due at the start of class on Thursday, August 30, at 10:30 a.m. It should be typed, double-spaced, and should have a title page that includes a title that you have composed, your name, and the date.

NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED

NATURAL HISTORY FIELD JOURNAL

For our “Writing About Natural History” class, you will keep your own natural history journal. It begins today and ends on the final day of classes, when it will be handed in to me. This journal will describe, narrate, analyze, interpret and otherwise create an experiential and intellectual record of your experiences with the nonhuman world during our entire semester. This field journal will have no length requirement; it must, however, be complete. Do not let us find that you have no entry about our trip to the Chesapeake Bay. Do not give your readers half-a-page about the largest herd of elk east of the Mississippi. This journal should accompany you on all of our trips away from Dickinson and Carlisle.

You are encouraged to share your journal with your classmates, with other students, with professors, or with your family. You should feel free to ask me for advice or suggestions during the term, and you should feel free to copy “commonplace” selections into your your own journal (from Thoreau or Annie Dillard Emerson, from Wordsworth or William Warner); just make sure that you always indicate when the words you write are not your own. Consider all of our texts, classes, and discussions as source material for your own journal writing. Writing is a social and cultural practice. Your own writing always benefits when you see yourself as part of a reading and writing group of interested literate individuals.

I may collect these journals at any time during the semester. I may ask to see the journal—individually or collectively—at any time. I may ask you to read aloud from your journal on any day our class meets. I may ask you to make use of your journal for additional formal or informal writing exercises. In short, this writing will be a key component of your work for this class. In addition to your five formal (graded) essays and two formal revisions, this journal will form the basis for the bulk of your writing during the term. Let your journal be influenced by the other writing we do in and for class. Let your style be influenced by the readings we are doing and reading that you are doing for your other Mosaic classes. Take advice from your classmates, or ignore it; take advice from me and your other professors.

Keep your journal in a separate notebook that can be handed in to me or can be shared among your classmates at any time. It must be written in ink (longhand or printed), or printed out on computer sheets that can be included in a journal format. You can keep your rough notes or drafts elsewhere. Your journal should be work that you would want to read aloud to the class or that someone else could read aloud. I will collect these on November 20 for the last time and will hand them back to you by the end of term.

Let me know if you have questions.

Fall 2016

(NOTE: The second meeting for a discussion of pre-registration for fall will be held on Tuesday, March 22 at 4:45 p.m. in Kaufman 152 to discuss signing up for classes in the fall and other details of the program)

————————————————————————————————————————————-

 Natural History Sustainability Mosaic II

Fall Semester 2016

____________________________________________________________

Three professors have just been approved for the Natural History Sustainability Mosaic II in the Fall Semester of 2016. Students who are interested in this exciting opportunity should consider applying. This Mosaic represents a new and improved version of a Mosaic we offered in 2012. Here are the details:

The three professors–Ashton Nichols, Environmental Studies and English; Marcus Key, Earth Sciences; and Gene Wingert, Biology–will use the entire semester to introduce students to exciting versions of paleontology, nature writing, and field biology. Students will enroll in three (3) classes (one in each subject, including a “W” and a laboratory science credit), and an Independent Study for their fourth credit:

1)     ENST 310 Special Topics/BIOL 401 Special Topics (Natural History with Lab): Wingert

2)     ERSC 307 Paleontology with Lab: Key, QR or DIV III lab science requirement.

3)     ENGL 212 Writing About Natural History: Nichols, W

4)     Independent Study or Research credit in BIOL, ENGL, ENST, or ERSC: Key, Nichols, Wingert

In addition to coursework, numerous field trips–several overnights–will enhance the experience of this unified teaching semester. Since students are only enrolled with these three professors, they will not have a regular schedule; instead, all of the Mosaic students will work with all three of the Mosaic professors in shared enterprises that will call for varying time schedules and commitments each week.

Field trips will include the world-class Carnegie Mellon Natural History Museum and the National Aviary in Pittsburgh; a Chesapeake Bay Foundation trip to live near Tangier and Smith Island in the middle of the Bay (crabbing and oyster dredging, wet and dry hikes, aquatic research, and more explorations); an Elk County Study Center residency, where we will study the largest elk herd east of the Mississippi (over 750 animals); a journey to North Carolina and Virginia to dig fossils in a world famous quarry pit and also to observe astonishing numbers of hawks and eagles in their annual autumn raptor migration at the southern tip of the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) Peninsula; as well as day-trips to the State Museum in Harrisburg, where students will prepare actual specimens for the museum’s collection, and much more. In addition, students will engage in other field experiences that include saw-whet owl banding at King’s Gap, turtle trapping in Wildwood Park, local hawk-watching at Waggoner’s Gap, a Susquehanna River clean-up trip in canoes, and a tour of the remarkably well-preserved 1804 Joseph Priestley House (he discovered oxygen) on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

Students will take no other classes during the fall of 2016, since they will receive a full four-credit semester based on three (3) classes with professors and a self-selected independent study (for one [1] credit) on a subject related to natural history, with one professor. The Natural History Sustainability Mosaic II represents a remarkable example of what can happen when three professors, with different strengths and different interests, come together to share their expertise and enthusiasms with a group of equally committed students. The Mosaic will use place-based, as well as classroom, learning as valuable ways of engaging student interests while conveying a wide range of academic and intellectual content.

For now, you need only let us know if there is a chance you might be interested in this Mosaic for the Fall 2016 semester. Early in February, we will have meetings and an official application period (the program will be competitive). There is an additional fee for this program because of the numerous field trips. This fee has already been offset by generous grants from the Community Studies Center (CSC) and the Center for Sustainability Education  (CSE), and the remaining student fee will be $ 400.00 per student. (Financial Aid can be applied to this cost.)

Here is our web-blog and syllabus from our first 2012 Mosaic for more details:

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/syllabus/2012/08/23/english-212-writing-about-natural-history/

All you need to do for now is to send your name to (nicholsa@ dickinson.edu) and let us know that you have an interest in this Mosaic for Fall semester 2016. We will then call a meeting for all interested students to begin applications.

Students celebrate environmental clean-up (in canoes) of the Susquehanna River.

English 101                   Small Poems, Big Ideas                        Spring 2016

 

Required Texts:

 

Bly, Robert, ed. News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness. Sierra Club.

Negri, Paul, ed. Great Short Poems. Dover.

Nichols, Ashton. Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting. Palgrave Macmillan.

Raffel, Burton. How to Read a Poem. Meridian, Penguin.

Shigematsu, Soiku and Gary Snyder. A Zen Forest: Zen Sayings. White Pine Press

(all texts must be in these editions)

–plus numerous handouts or web-linked assignments + bookmarked online dictionary

Course Aims and Learning Goals

Poems are like diamonds and atoms, full of contents under remarkable pressure, often containing astonishing energy in very small spaces. The course will look at short lyric poems that are long on ideas. Our survey of poets will range from Sappho to Shakespeare, through Spenser and Shelley, to Stevens and Sting (a former English teacher). Genres studied will include the ballad, the sonnet, the song, the sestina, the Romantic ode, even haiku and zen phrase poems. We will study dozens of lyric poems over the course of the semester; several short poems will be discussed during each class period. Students will be expected to read as carefully and as closely as is humanly possible. Students will also present poems for class discussion and will write several short essays as well as a final revised essay portfolio. We will learn careful reading, close reading, and will begin to explore the different ways that poems produce meaning under differing conditions. As one of the poems we will study has it : “Words fail. / Mind fails.”

Useful Websites for Small Poems, Big Ideas

 Short Poems
Poetry Daily: A new poem for each day
Haiku for People
Analyzing Poetry (University of Texas)
Great Poems (Academy of American Poets)

 Required Work:

Students will be required to read carefully and come to class prepared to discuss the assigned work. Reading carefully will include reading each short poem several times in order to prepare for class work and discussion. Reading quizzes and in-class writing will contribute to discussion and will be graded. Discussion will form an important part of the evaluation for the course. More than three (3) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade. Like this attendance policy, the Dickinson College plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. You must complete all required work in order to pass the course. Grading will be based on the following scale:

Class participation————–10%

Essays (2)———————-60%

Final exam (portfolio)———–30%

Total 100%

The essays (4-5 pages) will ask you to analyze poems with care and attention to details of form and content. The portfolio will ask you to revise one of your essays and two take-home poems, one of your choosing and one of mine. You will find information to help you in the preparation of your essays at:

http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/engl/writeguides.htm

More details on the essays and portfolio will be provided closer to due dates for those assignments. I am always available during office hours and by appointment to discuss the course, our readings, your writing, or your grade.

Schedule of Reading

JAN. M 25 Small Poems, Big Ideas: our course syllabus as a text and one small poem with big ideas.

H 28 Write out the title and the author of three (3) short poems from any of our texts (Bring all of our texts to class).

 

FEB. M 1 Shelley (“Oxymandias,” Dover 16-17) Raffel (How to Read Chapter 1) plus Zen Forest 33-39

H 4 Raffel (Chapter 2) plus Shakespeare (Dover, Great Short Poems 1-2) Herrick (Dover 4) and Milton (Dover 5)

 

M 8  Bradstreet (Dover 6) and Etherege (Dover 7)

H 11  Raffel (Chapter 3) plus Wordsworth (Dover 12-13)

 

M 15 Blake ( Dover 10-11) and Byron (Dover 15-16) and Keats (Dover 17)

H 18 Raffel (Chapter 4) plus Tennyson (Dover 21-22) and Browning (Dover 23) Whitman (Dover 25) and Dickinson (Dover 27-28)

 

M 22 Emerson (Dover 19) and Thoreau (Dover 24) Raffel (Chapter 5) Frost (Dover 44-45) and Thomas (Dover 53-54)

H 25 Raffel (Chapter 6) Zen Forest 62-82

 

M 29 Zen Forest 82-117

MARCH H 3 Essay #1 due at start of class (Workshop)

 

M 7  Urbanatural Roosting, xiii-67

H 10 Urbanatural Roosting, 69-135

 

M 14 SPRING BREAK

H 17 SPRING BREAK

 

M 21 Urbanatural Roosting, 137-end

H 24 Darwin Outline—A Handout

 

M 28 NoU 1-20

H 31 NoU 20-31

 

APRIL M 4 NoU 32-47

H7 NoU 47-53

 

M11 NoU 54-55 (A “perfect” poem)

H 14 Draft of Essay #2 due at start of class (Workshop)

 

M 18 Find a poem online you want to discuss in class

H 21 Final Essay #2 due at start of class (Workshop)

 

M25 NoU 98-99, 192-93, 235-7

H 28 NoU Pick a favorite poem from this collection and explain why it is your favorite (1-2 paragraphs)

 

MAY M 2 Bring your favorite from any of our texts for discussion

H 5 FINAL CLASS Portfolio Exam Review plus take-home questions

 

________________________________________________________________________

May 13 (Friday) 5:00 p.m.: Last time for Take-Home Final Exam (portfolio) to be submitted.

_______________________________________________________________________

 Accommodations for Disabilities

In compliance with the Dickinson College policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be recommended for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester (except for unusual circumstances) so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Students are required to register with Academic Resource Services in the Advising Office located on the first floor of Biddle House (contact ext. 1080 or waybranj@dickinson.edu ) to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.

Academic Honesty

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. Do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about citation, documentation, or academic honesty.

Useful Terminology and Quotations

TEXT: n.1. main body of matter in a manuscript, book, newspaper, distinguished from notes, appendixes, headings, illustrations. 2. the actual, original words of an author or speaker. 3. any of the various forms in which a writing exists. [ME, ML text(us) wording, L: structure (of an utterance), texture.]

LITERATURE: n. 1. writing regarded as having permanent worth through its intrinsic excellence. 2. The entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc. 3. the writings dealing with a particular subject: the literature of politics.

POEM: n. 1. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme. 2. A composition in verse rather than in prose. 3. A literary composition written with an intensity or beauty of language more characteristic of poetry than of prose. 4. A creation, object, or experience having beauty suggestive of poetry. [French poème, from Old French, from Latin poema, from Greek poiema, from poiein, to create.]

What Poets Have Said About Poetry

“’The mind is its own place, and of itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.’ But poetry [. . .] makes us the inhabitants of a world to which the familiar world is a chaos. It reproduces the common universe of which we are poerse, after it has been annihilated in our minds by the recurrence of impressions blunted by reiteration. It justifies the bold and true words of Tasso— “Non merita nome di creatore, se non Iddio ed il Poeta.” –Shelley

“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting. [. . .] It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.” –R. Frost

Poetry “’tis to create, and in creating live / A being more intense, that we endow / With form our fancy, gaining as we give / The life we image, even as I do now. —Lord Byron

“A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.” —Dylan Thomas

“I consider myself a poet first and a musician second.” —Bob Dylan

___________________________________________________________________________

 Professor Ashton Nichols                                             Class meetings: 3-4:15, M H, Kaufman 179                 Office: Kaufman 192                                         Office Hours: T 3-4:30, H 1-3, and by appointment

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Course Aims and Learning Goals

This course in 19th-century literature will use gender as a lens through which to view this revolutionary era. How did male authors talk about female subjects in these works? How did female authors invest authority in male and female voices? What current stereotypes about gender can be traced to Romantic and Victorian literary works? Rossetti will claim that goblin men sell a dangerous fruit that women often buy. Hardy will call an out-of-wedlock mother “a pure woman.” Society will damn him for that description: why? We will work to understand the sources of contemporary critical interest in—and scholarly discussion of—these authors and texts from a variety of critical perspectives. Study of these works will provide the basis for independent exploration of these and other Romantic and Victorian writers and prepare English majors for their ENGL 403 & 404 year.

Required Paper Texts

Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Romantic Period, Volume D

Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Victorian Era, Volume E

Frankenstein, The Norton Critical Edition

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Beth Newman. Bedford St. Martin’s

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Norton Critical Edition.

Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Ed. Scott Elledge. Norton Critical Edition

 

Websites for Romantic Women, Victorian Men

Romantic Circles

Romantic Chronology

Women of the Romantic Period

A Romantic Natural History

The Victorian Web=

The Victorian Women Writers Project

The Victorian Canon

 

Course Requirements

Students will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings for each day. Discussion will form an important part of class work, and students will sign up for two (2) discussion introductions based on our weekly reading schedule. Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, two critical essays (6-8 pp., 14-16 pp.), and a comprehensive take-home final exam. Class participation will include written exercises and discussion introductions. Two (2) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade in the course. The first essay will allow you to work closely with a single text; the second will require that you provide a critical context for research into works by a single author. Assignment sheets for both essays will be distributed three weeks before the essay due dates. The comprehensive final exam will be composed entirely of essay questions.

 

Schedule of Readings and Discussions

January

26 T   Syllabus as text: men and women, expecting the literary unexpected; 29  F   Blake 112-148

FEBRUARY 2 T Wordsworth 270-292 & 330-342 and Dorothy 402-415; 5 F Coleridge 437-487

9 T Percy Shelley 748-779, 832-855; 12 F Frankenstein

16 T Frankenstein; 19 F Keats 901-951

23 T (Essay #1 due); 26F Jane Eyre 1-123                                                       

MARCH 1 T   Jane Eyre 124-293; 4 F Jane Eyre 293-441 + Jane Eyre, the critics 445-501

8 T Mary Wollstonecraft 194-198 + 208-252; 11  F    Anna Aiken 589-593, Ann Radcliffe 598-601, Felicia Hemans 884-900, Letitia Elizabeth Landon 996-1014

15 T SPRING BREAK; 18 F SPRING BREAK

22 T Byron 612-622, 672-725, 742-744, John Clare 869-883; 25 F Great Expectations 9-163

29 T Great Expectations 163-264; APRIL 1F Great Expectations 264-359

5 T “The Woman Question” 1607-1635, Emily Bronte 1328-1338 ; 8 F Tennyson, 1156-1185, John Stuart Mill 1086-1122

12 T Browning 1275-1321, E. B. Browning 1123-1137, 1152-1155; 15 F Arnold 1369-1387, Christina Rossetti 1489-1511

19 T Darwin lecture 1560-1579; 22 F  Tess of the D’Urbervilles 1-119

26 T Tess of the D’Urbervilles 119-219, Hardy’s poems 339-351; 29 F Tess of the D’Urbervilles 219-314

MAY 3 T  Pre-Raphaelites 1463-1470, Morris 1512-1524, Swinburne 1525-1536; 6 F LAST CLASS Final Essay due in class: take-home exam review

______________________________________________________________________

MAY 16 Monday–Final Exam due (12:00 NOON, 192 KAUFMAN) 

_______________________________________________________________

Questions and Comments About Romantic Women, Victorian Men

My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.  – See more at: http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/mary-wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman#sthash.OQ1IKnCq.dpuf

—Mary Wollstonecraft

What makes Jane Eyre such a unique 19^th-century heroine? What makes Tess of the Durbeyfield such a typical one?

Jane Eyre unsettled views as to how women should act and behave, suggesting, in Lady Eastlake’s eyes, almost an overthrowing of social order. Unlike the long-suffering heroines in Charlotte Brontë’s early writings, who pine away for the dashing, promiscuous Duke of Zamorna, Jane demands equality and respect. ‘Do you think’, she demands of Rochester, ‘I am an automaton? – a machine without feelings?’. She speaks to him as one spirit to another, ‘equal – as we are’. – See more at: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jane-eyre-and-the-19th-century-woman#sthash.VaJOaX2O.dpuf                                                 —Sally Shuttleworth

What was so revolutionary about Jane Eyre as a female heroine in 19^th-century fiction?

The two sexes now inhabited what Victorians thought of as ‘separate spheres’, only coming together at breakfast and again at dinner. The ideology of Separate Spheres rested on a definition of the ‘natural’ characteristics of women and men. Women were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men, which meant that they were best suited to the domestic sphere. Not only was it their job to counterbalance the moral taint of the public sphere in which their husbands laboured all day, they were also preparing the next generation to carry on this way of life.

– See more at: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century#sthash.TOflFX1W.dpuf                                          —Kathryn Hughes

Are there still traces of “separate spheres,” or a “double standard,” in relationships between the sexes in 2016?

Calm Lab (if this is your first 300-level class in the English Department)

If this is your first 300-level class in the English Department, you need to make sure that you registered for English 300, the “Critical Approaches and Literary Methods Laboratory,” colloquially known as CALM Lab. Please make sure you have registered for this lab (in the way that you regularly register for a class), enrolling in English 300.

The syllabus for that lab includes two class meetings (in the evening) and written assignments connected to these meetings. If you have questions about the CALM Lab, please contact Chris Bombaro [bombaroc@dickinson.edu] in the Waidner-Spahr Library. She is the instructor for the CALM Lab and can answer any questions you may have. I will work closely with her on your CALM lab sessions and will attend at least one of the evening classes.

Academic Honesty

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about citation, documentation, or academic honesty.

 Accommodating Students With Disabilities

 Dickinson College makes reasonable academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students requesting accommodations must make their request and provide appropriate documentation to Disability Services in Biddle House. Because classes change every semester, eligible students must obtain a new accommodation letter from Director Marni Jones every semester and review this letter with their professors so the accommodations can be implemented. The Director of Disability Services is available by appointment to answer questions and discuss any implementation issues you may have. Disability Services proctoring is managed by Susan Frommer at 717-254-8107 or proctoring@dickinson.edu. Address general inquiries to Stephanie Anderberg at 717-245-1734 or e-mail disabilityservices@dickinson.edu.

 

English 220    Critical Approaches and Literary Methods    Nichols

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre: Case Studies. Ed. Beth Newman. Bedford.

Heaney, Seamus. Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Mayes, Frances. The Discovery of Poetry. Harcourt.

Murfin, Ross and Supryia Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Bedford.

Rhys, Jean. The Wide Sargasso Sea. Norton.

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest: Case Studies. Ed. Gerald Graff. Bedford.

(You must have copies of all of these texts in these precise editions)

COURSE AIMS AND LEARNING GOALS:

This course is designed to introduce you to the variety of questions we can ask about literary texts, their authors, and their audiences. We will study a limited number of texts using a variety of critical approaches: formal, generic, reader-response, feminist, psychological, economic, ecocritical. The course will also provide closely supervised instruction in the format and basic elements of critical writing (this is a “W” course). The course is designed to prepare you for the sorts of questions you will be expected to ask and answer throughout an English major, but it is not only for future English majors. The course is designed to help you to explore your own reasons for reading, writing about, and interpreting literary texts in a variety of ways.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Student participation will be a key element of this course. The small size of the class will allow us to conduct our class work on the seminar model, with students providing regular input into class discussion and in-class exercises, both written and oral. More than three (3) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade in the course. The College’s plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. If you have questions about plagiarism, contact me directly. You must complete all of the assigned work in order to receive credit for the course. Grades will be based on the following scale:

Class                        Essay #1        Essay #2          Essay #3    Take-Home Final

Participation              (poem)            (novel)            (play)              Exam

10%                              20%                20%                20%                30% = 100%

Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time during the semester to discuss the course, our readings, your writing, or your grade.

ASSIGNED READINGS AND CLASS WORK:

This class will be unlike others you have had in the English Department. There will be a range of readings assigned for each day, and you will often be asked to emphasize some aspect of those readings for class work. Essays and written work will draw on your reading of all assigned material. You will revise and resubmit almost all of your writing. You will also be encouraged to read more widely than the required reading in order to fulfill the requirements and goals for the course. You will be placed in discussion groups that will regularly be asked to present specific material or questions to the class. The terms listed under the readings below will be defined progressively. You will familiarize yourself with the attached handout on “Interpretive Methods” and be able to refer to and critique these approaches as the semester proceeds. Our class will become more flexible and discussion oriented as our work progresses.

Date         Text/s      Critical Terms/Method Readings      Writing 

JANUARY 19 M Our syllabus—Our syllabus as a Text—-Our class as a Dialogue “Read” what?

22 TH Heaney: 3-7 Mayes ix-xviii and 1-24, Glossary: “form,” “formalism”

_____________________________________________________________________________

26 M Heaney: 10-11, 13-14 Mayes 25-48, Glossary: “intentional fallacy”

29 TH Heaney: 29-35 Mayes 66-85, Glossary: “affective fallacy”

_____________________________________________________________________________

FEBRUARY 2 M Heaney: 100-114 Mayes 85-108, Glossary: “irony,” “paradox”

5 TH Mayes 138-155 ————Imagine one image

_____________________________________________________________________________

9 M Heaney: 156-165 Mayes 165-184, Glossary: “New Criticism,” “genre”

12 TH Heaney: 72, 120 Mayes 184-201

_____________________________________________________________________________

16 M Mayes 217-232 (“Ozymandias” handout)                 Workshop Draft of Essay #1

19 TH Heaney: 214-17, 332-41  Mayes 232-45, Glossary: “poetry,” “poetic diction”

______________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

23 M Heaney: 411                                                                           ESSAY #1 DUE

26 TH Brontë: 17-220

______________________________________________________________________________

MARCH 2 M Brontë: 220-437

5 TH Film versions of Jane Eyre: 465-71

______________________________________________________________________________

9 M SPRING BREAK

12 TH SPRING BREAK

______________________________________________________________________________

16 M Brontë: 441-464, 475-91. Glossary: “new historicism” “ecocriticism”

19 TH Novel reading day   ______________________________________________________________________________

23 M Brontë: 534-86, 607-35. Glossary: “feminist criticism” “reader-response criticism”

26 TH Rhys: 17-61                                        ————————-Workshop Essay #2 Draft

______________________________________________________________________________

30 M Rhys 65-190 Glossary: “Marxist Criticism” Brontë: 492-533

APRIL 2 TH Research Day for Essay #2

______________________________________________________________________________

6 M What is a Novel? Glossary: “novel” ————————————-ESSAY #2 Due

9 TH Shakespeare Act I-II

______________________________________________________________________________

13 M Shakespeare Act III-IV

16 TH Shakespeare Act V

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

20 M Shakespeare 91-115, 388-413 Glossary: “gender criticism,” “feminist criticism”

23 TH Shakespeare 213-320, Glossary: “poststructuralism,” “postcolonial”

______________________________________________________________________________

27 M Exam writing (favorite Heaney poem, favorite Shakespeare scene)———ESSAY #3 DUE

30 TH Last Class and Discussion of Take-Home Final Exam (Class evaluation)

______________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, May 5, 5:00 p.m. (NO LATE EXAMS): Final due in KAUFMAN 192

______________________________________________________________________________

Ashton Nichols, Class 1:30-2:45 p.m.–Monday & Thursday, Kaufman 178

Office Hours: M TH 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (and by appointment)

__________________________________________________________________

ACADEMIC HONESTY

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about citation, documentation, or academic honesty.

ACCOMODATING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

 Dickinson College makes reasonable academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students requesting accommodations must make their request and provide appropriate documentation to Disability Services in Biddle House. Because classes change every semester, eligible students must obtain a new accommodation letter from Director Marni Jones every semester and review this letter with their professors so the accommodations can be implemented. The Director of Disability Services is available by appointment to answer questions and discuss any implementation issues you may have. Disability Services proctoring is managed by Susan Frommer at 717-254-8107 or proctoring@dickinson.edu. Address general inquiries to Stephanie Anderberg at 717-245-1734 or e-mail disabilityservices@dickinson.edu.

******************************************

Interpretive Methods: A Primer

Critical approaches are not cookie-cutters placed over a text. Effective interpretations draw on more than one approach in order to develop an argument. Every one of the categories below overlaps with others in important ways. Less useful interpretations force the text into narrowly methodological readings; such reductive interpretations always weaken an argument by leaving it open to objections from other points of view. The following categories, however, represent ways that literary critics and theorists have been talking about texts for the past half-century. Your own reading and writing about literature should reflect the ways that you give emphasis to various sorts of questions that can be asked about texts.

Textual (Philological): this form of analysis emphasizes the physical text as an object of study. Is there still a manuscript copy of the work in the author’s handwriting? Are there conflicting manuscript versions? Can we date this work? How? How did the author or editor revise the work over time and in different editions? How might these questions influence our understanding of the text?

New Critical: a form of reading that stresses our ability to analyze a literary text without considering the circumstances surrounding its production. Such reading de-emphasizes the author and the historical context in favor of a “pure” analysis of language as language: tropes, symbols, metaphors, allusions, metrics, narrative structure. A “great” work is then seen as one that exemplifies certain identifiable characteristics: unity, complexity, subtlety, allusiveness. Sometimes identified with “close” reading.

Historicist/New Historicist: traditional forms of historicism emphasize the importance of historical “background” to the understanding of literature. The more a reader knows about the time and place in which a work was produced, the more effective will be that reader’s interpretations of the text. So-called “new” historicism argues that history itself is much less stable than we thought because our understanding of the past is always conditioned by our mediator (the historian) and by our own subjective position in a complex, multivalent culture.

Biographical: reading that emphasizes the author as a key to understanding the text. Such interpretations see the author’s childhood, education, family background, social class, and life experiences as important critical considerations. Traditional biographical readings tend to see authors as “products” of their times. More recent authorial critiques tend to stress the psychology of the author as a key to literary interpretation. Did the author long for a “mother”? Did the author hate a “father”? What did the author hide? Do we identify with the author’s life?

Psychological (Freudian): such readings see psychological categories and terms–conscious, subconscious, ego, id, superego, Oedipal, repression, transference–as important ways of talking about literature. They may focus on the psychology of the author, the characters/voices in the text, or the reader, seeking to explain plots, imagery, and authorial intention in terms of an analysis of mental events. For such interpretations the “hidden” aspects of a work are often more important than the “obvious.”

Economic (Marxist): Marxist interpretations emphasize the economic and material conditions of all human activity. Such readings claim that literary works are a function of the material circumstances of the author (rich or poor) and the economy of the author’s society (feudal, mercantile, capitalist, socialist). Such readings also stress the role of literature in hiding or revealing class distinctions and the need for political change.

Reception/Reader Response: discussions of responses produced by a text on its audience. Such critiques might discuss acceptance or rejection of a work by the reading public over time, reception by contemporary critics, or the current state of criticism of a text. Reception theory also analyzes and interprets the process of reading itself? What does it mean to “read” a work? What does it mean to “misread” the same work? Could we read disinterestedly?

Deconstructive: de(con)structive readings reveal the linguistic tensions in a literary text. They also want to argue that all language is less st(able) than we often assume. Does “light” always imply, contain, or implicate “dark”? Does a seemingly unified text contain contradictions? How might a poem about the beauty of nature actually reveal the author’s own confusions about his pre/con/re-ceptions. Do certain words hide a much as they reveal? Do we find “true” meaning or make our own meanings? Is there “Meaning,” or are they only “meanings”?

Feminist: such readings stress the fact that women and men have different experiences–including linguistic experiences–or point out similarities across gender boundaries. Feminist interpretations draw attention to the fact that the author was male or female, or to varying responses by male and female readers. Such readings tend to emphasize the history of gender relationships as a key to understanding the text. At the most theoretical level a feminist reading argues that language itself is male or female (i.e. based on certain gendered assumptions).

Cultural Studies: criticism that sees literary works not as the products of “genius” authors, but as artifacts of the cultures in which they were produced and in which they are interpreted. Cultural studies also incorporates the records of societies–imaged, photographs, films, clothing, objects–into the concept of “text,” arguing that to read a text is to read the culture in which it was produced and also the culture in which readers are performing the act of interpretation.

Ecocriticism: a recent form of interpretation that has emerged out of emphasis on the relationship between humans and the natural environment. Ecocritics emphasize the role played by nonhuman nature in a wide range of literary texts. They also interrogate the ways that human interactions with nature (plants, animals, geology, landscapes) have affected human life and the natural world. Many ecocritics have environmentalist or preservationist agendas; others are more interested in the philosophical and cultural implications of human understanding of and impact on the natural environment.

 *   *   *   *   *

 ENGL 212/211  

Writing About Nature

Spring 2015

 

 Required Texts:

Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Harper Perennial. 2007.

                                   Fergus, Charles. Wildlife of Pennsylvania. Stackpole Books. 2000.

Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual 5^th edition. Bedford St. Martin’s. 2011.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. Ballantine. 1986.

 Nichols, Ashton. Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012.

–all in paper, all in these editions

 Course Aims and Learning Goals:

This course is designed to improve your skills as a writer of expository prose by emphasizing the genre of nature writing. We will concentrate on a variety of writing problems and techniques, emphasizing specific skills necessary to a wide range of writing tasks: description, narration, analysis, and interpretation. In all cases, our focus will be on the natural–or nonhuman–world and human connections to that world. Discussions of essay reading assignments will be supplemented by workshop sessions and individual tutorials and fieldtrips. Students will have the opportunity to critique one another’s work and to compare their essays to works by nature writers of the past two centuries. The course aims to concentrate your attention on all of the precise stylistic details that can lead to effective writing.

This class will also make use of a new pedagogy–or teaching method–known as “blended learning.” So-called blended learning takes advantage of the multitude of electronic tools and techniques now available, both inside the classroom and out, to assist teachers in teaching and students in learning. From email chains to the WWW (World Wide Web), from YouTube to Spotify, and from chat software to international video clips, learning that blends traditional teaching techniques with the range of e-media now available offers a range of new possibilities for the creation, evaluation, and transmission of knowledge.

We have also been chosen to receive computer tablets (Apple I-Pads) on loan from the College’s IT Service for each student during the entire semester. We use the tablets for access to open as well as library owned e-resources. Benefits of these resources will include cost savings for you, a rich array of open access and library sources, and the devices even encourage more use of traditional primary and secondary source materials. A liaison librarian–ours is Brenda Landis (landisb)–will assist us in identifying open access and library resources for our classes. Dickinson’s Library Database directory (including many full-text scholarly databases, streaming film collections, statistical sources, and digitized primary source collections) is available to you from the following link: http://www.dickinson.edu/homepage/584/ You should also see–and bookmark the direct link to the databases themselves: http://libguides.dickinson.edu/az.php.

NOTE: As a result of our grant-funded emphasis on blended learning and our loaned tablets, these learning resources will produce the need for students to be externally evaluated at various points during the semester. All students in English 212–Writing About Nature–will receive extra course-evaluation forms through their email. The Center for Opinion Research (COR) at F&M is developing pre- and post-course surveys for our class and other courses being offered at Dickinson this semester. The plan is to have all of this information delivered to you via your email; I ask that you please complete these surveys as soon as possible after you receive them. This results of your work in this program will make future classes at Dickinson better for you, for your classmates, and for many students who will come after you. Thanks in advance for your help with this project.

Electronic Tools for Writing About Nature

A streaming, edited blog of examples of the finest contemporary and current nature writing:

http://naturewriting.com/

A site that describes the functioning of naturewriting.com (above):

http://naturewriting.com/about.php

A list of the best examples of nature writing:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/nature-writing

Paul Evans offers his analysis of effective nature writing:

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/competition-article/how-be-nature-writer

British author Richard Mabey defends nature writing against a recent attack:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/18/richard-mabey-defence-nature-writing

A good overview of the genre:

http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/natwriterm.htm

A blog-site from the Henry David Thoreau birthplace historic site in Concord, Mass., near Walden Pond (your professor is a contributor):

http://thoreaufarm.org/theroost/

An interview with Bill McKibben via YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofodxNPwOHM

A provocative article from Salon.com: the author argues that “nature writing is over”:

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/28/wild_might_take_place_outdoors_but_its_far_from_a_wilderness_memoir_partner/

Essay Requirements:

–All essays must be typed: one-inch margins, double-spaced

 –Assignments will specify a precise length for each essay

 –Essays must be stapled or paper-clipped together

 –Title page must include title, author’s name, and date

 –Essays are due in class at 3:00 p.m. on the date indicated in the syllabus

 –Final essays must be brought to class

 –NO LATE PAPERS (or drafts) WILL BE ACCEPTED

See also Web Sites for Nature Writers: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/syllabus/?s=212

 Grading:

Essay   1      2      3    4   Rev #1   In-Class   Journal    Exam-Rev #2


                      10     10   10   10      20            10                  10                   20   = 100%

Students must complete all of these requirements to receive credit for the course.

_______________________________________________________________________

Class Meetings, Reading, & Essays Due: 
M Th 3:00 p.m., Kaufman 178 _________________________________________________________

January 19 M First class. 3:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m. Kaufman 178. Our syllabus as a text.

22 Th Blended Learning and IPads in and out of class (an introduction)

______________________

26 M  Essay #1 due (a natural object: assignment sheet attached).

29 Th  Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac. xiii-xix, pp. 3-137. Good nature writing?

______________________

February 2 M  In-class exercise (sentences from student essays). Hacker, “Clarity,” pp. 1-19

5 Th  Essay #1 revised (a natural object). Hand in for a final grade. Workshop.

_______________________

9 M Aldo Leopold, pp. 138 to end. Hacker, “Grammar,” pp. 20-56.

12 Th Annie Dillard pp. 1-148

_______________________

16 M  Annie Dillard pp. 149-end

19 Th Vocabulary. Bring nature journal to class. Hacker, “Punctuation,” pp. 57-78

________________________

 23 M Survey nature writing journals online.

26 Th Essay # 2 due (narration) Workshop. In-class: “To see the wind with a man his eyes.” Hacker, “Mechanics,” pp. 79-90

________________________

March 2 M Charles Fergus, Wildlife of Pennsylvania. Pick a single CAPITALIZED SECTION from this book [ex. COYOTE, ELK, PUDDLE DUCKS, WILD TURKEY, LAND SALAMANDERS, POND AND MARSH TURTLES, WATER SNAKE]). At the start of class, bring up a single-screen, double-spaced page about why your chosen entry in Fergus’s book is well-written, using examples of language as details; be prepared with notes on your IPad to tell the class why your entry is well-written.

5 Th Fergus, continue with examples in class. Submit Fergus paragraphs electronically.

__________________________

9 M    SPRING BREAK

12 Th SPRING BREAK

__________________________   

16 M Bring a well-written paragraph about nature from the web to class (on you IPad, linked to a page we can all access on our IPads, not a writer we are reading this term—submit your paragraph–electronically–at the end of class today).

19 Th  Your field journal as a text. Bring you best paragraph so far, typed out on your IPad and sent via email to everyone in our class before class today.

__________________________

23 M More paragraphs from IPad journals.

26 Th Essay #3 due: analyze Leopold’s or Dillard’s style. Animal rights: class positions.

__________________________        

30 M Ashton Nichols xiii-xxiii and 1-101

April 2 Th  Ashton Nichols 103-end

__________________________________

6 M   Fieldtrip to Farm – meet at Kaufman CSE lobby (next to Public Safety)

9 Th  Field Trip to Reineman Sanctuary — meet at Kaufman CSE lobby

___________________________________

13 M  Essay #4 (bring draft notes for Essay #4) Hacker, Glossaries, pp. 231-249

16 Th (No class: Research and Writing Day for Essay #4 and Revision of #2 or #3)

___________________________________

20 M Debate and discuss animal rights thesis statements: Animal rights online.

23 Th Blended Learning: A Conclusion

___________________________________

27 M   1st Revision Due in class at 3:00 P.M. (Essays 2-4)

30 Th Last Class, Essay #4 due (animal rights: interpretation)

———————————————————————————————————-

May 8 Friday FINAL EXAM (2nd Revision) due in Kaufman 192 by 5:00 p.m.

———————————————————————————————————-

Professor Ashton Nichols 
Kaufman 192 M TH 11:00 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. and by appt.

———————————————————————————————————-

ACCOMODATING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Dickinson College makes reasonable academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students requesting accommodations must make their request and provide appropriate documentation to Disability Services in Biddle House. Because classes change every semester, eligible students must obtain a new accommodation letter from Director Marni Jones every semester and review this letter with their professors so the accommodations can be implemented. The Director of Disability Services is available by appointment to answer questions and discuss any implementation issues you may have. Disability Services proctoring is managed by Susan Frommer at 717-254-8107 or proctoring@dickinson.edu. Address general inquiries to Stephanie Anderberg at 717-245-1734 or e-mail disabilityservices@dickinson.edu.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college’s Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about citation, documentation, or academic honesty.

________________________________________________________________________

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NATURAL HISTORY FIELD JOURNAL

For our “Writing About Natural History” class, you will keep your own natural history journal. It begins when you receive your “loaner” tablet IPad and ends on the final day of classes, when it will be handed in to me for the last time–electronically. This journal will describe, narrate, analyze, interpret and otherwise create an experiential and intellectual record of your experiences with the nonhuman world during our entire semester. This field journal will have no length requirement; it must, however, be complete. This journal can include days in Carlisle, days away from Carlisle, dreams you have had, solo experiences, group experiences, and conversations with your family and friends (Spring Break, week-ends, etc.)

You are encouraged to share your journal with your classmates, with other students, with professors, or with your family. You should feel free to ask me for advice or suggestions during the term, and you should feel free to copy “commonplace” selections into your own journal (that would mean quotes from Annie Dillard, Aldo Leopold, Charles Fergus, or your humble professor, as well as reading you are doing in any other class or simply on your own); just make sure that you always indicate when the words you write down in your journal are not your own. Consider all of our texts, classes, and discussions as source material for your own journal writing. Writing is a social and cultural practice. Your own writing always benefits when you see yourself as part of a reading and writing group of interested literate individuals.

I may collect these journals at any time during the semester. I may ask to see the journal—individually or collectively—on any day, maybe next Thursday! I may ask you to read aloud from your journal on any day our class meets. I may ask you to make use of your journal for additional formal or informal writing exercises. In short, this writing will be an ongoing component of your work for this class. In addition to your four formal (graded) essays and two formal revisions, this journal will form the basis for the bulk of your writing during the term. Let your journal be influenced by the other writing we do in and for class. Let your style be influenced by the readings we are doing and reading that you are doing for your other classes. Take advice from your classmates, or ignore it; take advice from me and your other professors–or ignore it!

Keep your journal in your IPad in a way that can be sent to classmates and to me in all or in part. We will share these journal electronically in class, and you will submit them to me that way. It must be written in your IPad tablet in journal format. Your journal should be work that you will want to read aloud–and will read aloud–to the class, or language that someone else could read aloud. I will collect these on Thursday May 30 for the last time and will hand them back to you after I have graded the Final Exam essays.

Let me know if you have questions.

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 Essay #1

 A Natural Object

Spend at least one uninterrupted hour observing a natural object. The object can be large (star, sun, cloud, mountain), small (grain of sand, flower, ant, leaf) or in between (stream, tree, turkey vulture, rock). Your object should be one that had not been shaped or visibly affected by humans. You should observe it as carefully as possible. Do not engage in any other activity during your observation. No Walkmans or electronic devices!

What did you learn as a result of this experience? Write a three to four typed pages essay that explains to the members of our class what you knew at the end of this hour that you did not know before your observation began. Write with care and attention to the precise details of your experience. Your essay should have a thesis (a central controlling idea) and a clear organizational principle (chronological, psychological association, logical progression). Avoid errors of grammar, syntax, and spelling. Proofread you work carefully.

This essay is due at the start of class on Monday, January 26 at 3:00 p.m. It should be typed, double-spaced, and should have a title page that includes a title that you have composed, your name, and the date. All essays in ENGL 212 will still be submitted in traditional paper format (typed, page numbers, stapled or clipped) for purposes of our regular workshop classes upon the submission of each essay.

This paper will be returned to you with my comments but no grade quickly; you will then revise and resubmit it for a final grade on

NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED

American Nature Writing: Environment, Culture and Values

Essay #1

Choose one (1) of the following chapters from Walden:

“Economy” 

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” 

“Reading”

“Higher Laws” 

“Brute Neighbors”

 “Conclusion”

Reread your chapter carefully, and then write an essay that explains how your chapter helps you to understand the entire book from which it is taken. What is it about this chapter that connects to Thoreau’s wider points, and how could a reader use your chapter to help to make sense of the whole work. Your essay should have a thesis (a central controlling idea) that suggests clearly how your chapter helps a reader to understand the entire book.

Write with care and attention to the details of the chapter you have chosen and to the entire text. Use concrete specific details from the chapter and the book to support your claims. You may refer to other chapters besides the one you are analyzing to help with your analysis. Organize your essay in a way that presents your ideas clearly and coherently. Proofread your work carefully.

Your essay should be four to five pages double-spaced pages of Times New Roman 12-point type, prepared in accordance with the English Department website on “English Writing Guidelines”: http://www.dickinson.edu/info/20111/english/748/writing_guidelines

Your essay should have a title page that includes a title, your name, the class, and the date. The essay will be due at the start of class on Monday, October 8. You must have your completed essay with you when you arrive on time in class at 9:00 a.m. that day.

NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED