11/23/2024 4:08:09 PM	ENGL 10 Course Outline as of Spring 2025	Changed Course
CATALOG INFORMATION
Discipline and Nbr:  ENGL 10	Title:  INTRO ENVIRO LIT
Full Title:  Introduction to Environmental Literature
Last Reviewed:4/11/2022

Units		Course Hours per Week			Nbr of Weeks	Course Hours Total
Maximum	3.00	Lecture Scheduled	3.00		17.5 max.	Lecture Scheduled	52.50
Minimum	3.00	Lab Scheduled	0		6 min.	Lab Scheduled	0
		Contact DHR	0			Contact DHR	0
		Contact Total	3.00			Contact Total	52.50
		Non-contact DHR	0			Non-contact DHR Total	0

Total Out of Class Hours:  105.00

Total Student Learning Hours: 157.50

Title 5 Category:  AA Degree Applicable
Grading:  Grade or P/NP
Repeatability:  00 - Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP
Also Listed As: 
Formerly: 

Catalog Description:

In this course, students will explore the themes, historical periods, and contemporary issues of environmental literature all while analyzing how the genre intersects with issues like culture, gender, race, ethnicity, class, colonization, and climate change. Field trip(s) may be required.

Prerequisites/Corequisites:

Recommended Preparation:
Eligibility for English 1A or EMLS 10 (formerly ESL 10)

Limits on Enrollment:

Schedule of Classes Information
Description:

In this course, students will explore the themes, historical periods, and contemporary issues of environmental literature all while analyzing how the genre intersects with issues like culture, gender, race, ethnicity, class, colonization, and climate change. Field trip(s) may be required.

(Grade or P/NP)
Prerequisites:
Recommended:Eligibility for English 1A or EMLS 10 (formerly ESL 10)
Limits on Enrollment:
Transfer Credit:CSU;UC.
Repeatability:00 - Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP

ARTICULATION, MAJOR, and CERTIFICATION INFORMATION

Associate Degree:		Effective:	Fall 2004	Inactive:
Area:	E H	Humanities Global Perspective and Environmental Literacy
CSU GE:	Transfer Area			Effective:	Inactive:
	C2	Humanities		Fall 2004
IGETC:	Transfer Area			Effective:	Inactive:
	3B	Humanities		Fall 2004
CSU Transfer:	Transferable	Effective:	Fall 2004	Inactive:
UC Transfer:	Transferable	Effective:	Fall 2004	Inactive:
C-ID:

Certificate/Major Applicable: Major Applicable Course

COURSE CONTENT

Student Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Critically read, analyze, and interpret major works of environmental literature.

2. Demonstrate an understanding of the influence, impact, and transformation of literature on the environment across time and cultures.

3. Distinguish between literary perspectives and theories on the relationship between humans and the environment.

 

Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Define environmental literature as a genre.

2. Identify selected major figures in environmental literature and analyze their contribution to the genre.

3. Identify major historical and cultural patterns and emerging traditions embodied in environmental texts.

4. Compare and contrast the ways in which the human relationship to the environment has been imagined in literature from two or more cultures.

5. Critique aspects of contemporary United States culture from an ecological perspective.

6. Analyze literary texts through the lens of social and environmental justice.

Topics and Scope

I.  Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Nature of Environmental Literature

II. Major Figures and Historical Patterns in Environmental Literature (Class Will Include 2 or More)

    A. The pastoral tradition in Greek and Western romantic literature

    B. Early American literature: Descriptions of nature and writing about regions in the 17th- and 18th- centuries

    C. 20th-century renaissance of American environmental nonfiction

    D. Major contributions of women to American environmental literature

    E. Indigenous and cultural conceptions of the environment and its relation to people

III. Similarities and Differences in the Ways in Which Literary Works of Different Cultures have Imagined the Human Relationship to the Environment

    A. Oral versus written literary traditions

    B. Native American versus Western creation stories

    C. Conceptions of place in indigenous and Western cultures

    D. Cultural and ecological perspectives on an "ethical" relationship to the land

    E. Ways in which the arts in general and texts in particular both shape and express values and attitudes towards the natural world

    F. Ways in which texts can provoke environmental reflection and practice restorationism

    G. Art, advocacy, and activism

IV. Critical Approaches to Environmental Literature (Class Will Include 2 or More)

    A. Ecocriticism

    B. Ethnic studies and postcolonial criticism

    C. Gender studies and queer theory

    D. Cultural studies

    E. Literary theory

V. Climate Change and Literature at the Intersections of Policy, Advocacy, Science, and Community

Assignments:

1. Weekly reading assignments (roughly 40-60 pages per week), such as:

    A. Major works of environmental literature, including poetry

     B. Essays on environmental literature as a genre

    C. Essays offering different cultural perspectives on the environment

    D. Essays on literary criticism and/or theory

2. Low-stakes writing assignments, such as reading journals and environmental literature

3. Formal writing from various essay genres (e.g. analytical, personal, critical, and research) in response to class texts

4. Quizzes (0-18)

5. Exam(s)

6. Group or individual presentation(s) focused on, for example, particular authors, time periods or themes (optional)

7. Field trips to explore a local ecosystem (optional)

Methods of Evaluation/Basis of Grade.

Writing: Assessment tools that demonstrate writing skill and/or require students to select, organize and explain ideas in writing.		Writing 70 - 75%
Low-stakes writing assignments, essays
Problem solving: Assessment tools, other than exams, that demonstrate competence in computational or non-computational problem solving skills.		Problem Solving 0 - 0%
None
Skill Demonstrations: All skill-based and physical demonstrations used for assessment purposes including skill performance exams.		Skill Demonstrations 0 - 0%
None
Exams: All forms of formal testing, other than skill performance exams.		Exams 20 - 25%
Quiz(zes), exam(s)
Other: Includes any assessment tools that do not logically fit into the above categories.		Other Category 0 - 10%
Group or individual presentation(s), presentation(s), field trip(s)

Representative Textbooks and Materials:

The Norton Book of Nature Writing. Finch, Robert and Elder, John.  W. W. Norton and Company. 2002 (classic).

Literature and the Environment.  Anderson, Lorraine. Pearson. 2012 (classic).

Earthcare: An Anthology in Environmental Ethics. Clowney, David and Mosto, Patricia. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. 2009 (classic).

An American Sunrise. Harjo, Joy. Norton 2018.

Night is a Sharkskin Drum. Trask, Haunani-Kay. University of Hawaii Press. 2002 (classic).

There There.  Orange, Tommy.  Vintage. 2019.

So Far From God. Castillo, Ana.  W. W. Norton and Company. 2005 (classic).

Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial. Wald, Sarah D. Temple University Press. 2019.

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources.  Anderson, M Kat. University of California Press. 2013 (classic).

As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock.  Ghilio-Whitaker, Dina. Beacon Press. 2020.

Walden.  Thoreau, Henry David.  CreateSpace. 2017  (classic).

Prairyerth.  Heat-Moon, William Least. Houghton Mifflin Publishing. 1991 (classic).

A Friend of the Earth.  Boyle, T.C. Boyle. Penguin.  2000 (classic).

Walking. Thoreau, Henry David. CreateSpace. 2010 (classic).

The Mountains of California. Muir, John. CreateSpace. 2018.

The Land of Little Rain. Austin, Mary.  Warbler Classics. 2020.

Silent Spring. Carson, Rachel. ValdeBooks. 2021.

Sand County Almanac. Leopold, Aldo. Oxford University Press. 2020.

Desert Solitaire. Abbey, Edward. Touchstone. 1991  (classic).

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Dilliard, Annie. Harper Perennial. 2013.

Turtle Island. Snyder, Gary.  New Directions. 1974 (classic).

Arctic Dreams. Lopez, Barry. Vintage. 2001 (classic).

New and Selected Poems. Oliver, Mary. Beacon Press. 2004 (classic).

Refuge. Williams, Terry Tempest. Vintage. 1992 (classic).

The Control of Nature. McPhee, John. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1990 (classic).

Ceremony. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Penguin. 2006 (classic).

My Antonia. Cather, Willa. Dover Thrift. 1994 (classic).

That Distant Land.  Berry, Wendell.  Counterpoint. 2005 (classic).

Print PDF