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Eng 100EN, Spring 2008

Honors Seminar for Eng 122EN, Introduction to Literature and the Environment

An honors tutorial designed to enrich the lecture experience of Eng 122EN for particularly motivated students. Includes additional readings, more extensive study of the reading list, and supplementary writing.

This course is an environmental survey of Western literature. In much the same way that feminist critics are interested in literary representations of gender and women, environmental critics explore how nature and the natural world are imagined through literary texts. As with changing perceptions of gender, such literary representations are not only generated by particular cultures, they play a significant role in generating those cultures. Thus if we wish to understand our contemporary attitude toward the environment, its literary history is an excellent place to start. While authors such as Thoreau and Wordsworth may first come to mind in this context, literary responses to environmental concerns are as old as the issues themselves. Deforestation, air pollution, endangered species, wetland loss, animal rights, and rampant consumerism have all been appearing as controversial issues in Western literature for hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years. Starting with an excerpt from one of the West’s earliest texts, The Epic of Gilgamesh, this course will explore the often-ignored literary history of the natural world. This course satisfies the requirements of the Undergraduate Specialization in Literature and the Environment (USLE).

“Please rate the overall quality of the instructor’s teaching”

Average rating: 5 of 5 (♣♣♣♣♣ Excellent; ♣♣♣♣ Very Good; ♣♣♣ Good; ♣♣ Fair; ♣ Poor)

♣♣♣♣♣ Amazing teacher, who had an abundant amount of knowledge. He was always available and was always around for meetings.

♣♣♣♣♣ Ken was generous with his teaching time. He is so available by way of email and office hours. His lectures were to the point and clear. Since we were a small group he would ask us questions to help us get the information.

♣♣♣♣♣ Ken is very accommodating, a good lecturer and exhibits an extensive knowledge of the subject manner that he teaches.