ENGLISH 22
(A.K.A. ECOCRITICISM 101)
WEEK #2 ASSIGNMENT
Readings
Genesis; “The Historic Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” by Lynn White Jr.; “Cosmic Fragments” by Heraclites; Hesiod; “Introduction to Western Metaphysics” by Albernethy.
All of these texts are in the Course Reader.
Lectures
Lectures will be shown from 11:00am -12:15pm on Tuesday & Thursday in Campbell Hall. Lectures start promptly at 11:00am and run for the entire period. Attendance will be taken via iClicker.
The Prezi for both lectures is below for your reference.
Here are the PDFs of the lecture notes (i.e. the Prezi material) for Lecture #3 and Lecture #4.
Film
Please watch either the documentary Fire in Paradise or The Story of California’s Camp Fire, as Told By Paradise High School according to these guidelines:
1) If you have not seen the documentary Fire in Paradise, please watch it. It is an October 2019 episode of the long-running PBS series Frontline. It currently streams for free directly from PBS.
2) If you have already seen Fire in Paradise, please instead watch The Story of California’s Camp Fire, as Told By Paradise High School. It is in August 20 20 documentary produced by The New Yorker magazine. It is available on YouTube.
3) Since we will be considering each in class, feel free to watch both videos.
Trigger warning: These films, which takes viewers inside the 2018 California Camp fire, put a human face on the climate crisis. Hence, they definitely can be unnerving. As one student noted after watching this film, “Fire In Paradise is one of the most scary and heartbreaking things I have ever seen.” If you have experienced or reacted to the trauma of a wildfire (or any fire, for that matter), you might not want to watch these films. If you decide not to watch one of these film, please contact your TA for an alternate assignment.
After watching one of the above films, please watch the below short lecture by Ken: Intro, Fire in Paradise and then comment on this short lecture on YouTube.
Note that, while you can watch this video on this page, you need to go to YouTube to comment in the YouTube comment section.
Also note that while Ken’s introduction covers both of the above films, you only need to comment on the film that you watched. However, if you have already watched Fire in Paradise, please feel free to reference it in your comment on The Story of California’s Camp Fire.
Please note that your YouTube comments on Ken’s short lectures on the films need to be completed by 6 AM on Monday, October 16.
Lecture #3
Lecture #4
Weekly Documentary Introduction
Lecture Prezi