Environmental Literature 
EVR 3021 (CRN 80420) and LIT 4404 (CRN 80419)
Dr. Peter Blaze Corcoran and Dr. Jim Wohlpart

Fall 2000
Monday 8:30-11:30 am
AB2 236

Contact Information

Dr. Peter Blaze Corcoran 
Office:  AB Two 208;  590-7166
Hours:  T and R 2:00-4:00 and by appt.
e-mail: pcorcora@fgcu.edu

Dr. Jim Wohlpart 
Office:  AB Two 212;  590-7181
Hours:  M 11:30-1:00 by appointment
e-mail:  wohlpart@fgcu.edu
homepage:  http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/
 
 
 

               
                Witness
              I want to tell what the forests
              were like

              I will have to speak
              in a forgotten language
               

                  W. S. Merwin

 

Course Description
Environmental Literature will explore the human connection to the environment, and especially to nature, in various literary works from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.  This exploration will occur with a special consideration given to the role of language in understanding and expressing our connection to the world around us.  In addition to exploring this connection in literature, students will develop and express an understanding of their own connection to the environment through a medium that uses language.

In the course, students will grapple with the tension between our tendency to rely on traditional attitudes and responses toward nature and our need to encounter nature directly and immediately.  We will consider the importance of formulating an expression of this encounter through the medium of language.  Ultimately, Environmental Literature will foster an understanding of our connection to our environment through experiencing nature and through reading and interacting with several contemporary writers who will visit Southwest Florida as part of the Forgotten Language Tour.  During these interactions, students will be exposed not only to the delicate yet complex role of language in our connection to nature but also the ways in which this connection leads to grassroots activism.

As a part of this experience, students will be invited to engage in various activities designed to quiet the rancor of our culture in order to open themselves to experiencing the quiet simplicity of nature.  These activities will lead to an expansion of the dimensions of our experience as humans and the ability to witness the “language of the forest.”

Course Goals
In the course, students will develop the following skills and knowledge:
Environmental Literacy/Nature Literacy:  Students will move towards achievement of the Florida Gulf Coast University student learning goal of developing “an ecological perspective” and the related outcomes that students will “know the issues related to economic, social, and ecological sustainability; analyze and evaluate ecological issues locally and globally; participate in collaborative projects requiring awareness and/or analysis of ecological environmental issues.”  In doing so, students and teachers will work toward defining the meaning of nature literacy and ecological literacy in the context of this course.

Critical and Creative Thinking: Students will develop their abilities to experience literary works and the social and natural worlds in critical and creative ways.  Through analysis of language, symbols, and images, students will learn to take literary works apart; through the discernment of patterns and the connection of the text to the larger contexts, students will create syntheses of the literary works that demonstrate their understanding of the works in relation to the world around.  These experiences will foster an openness to thinking critically and creatively about the human world and the environment and develop an openness to the aesthetics of nature and of literary texts. 

A Sense of Place:  Students and teachers together will explore the meaning of “sense of place” and students will discover and reflect upon their own evolving sense of place in the Western Everglades of Florida.

Remembering the Forgotten Language: Ultimately, through the development of Environmental Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking Skills, and a Sense of Place, students will foster a desire and develop their abilities to open themselves to the creative power of nature that speaks through the language of the texts we read and through the natural world.  Students will understand the way in which the rancor of our culture impacts their abilities to hear the “language of the forest.” Students will have the opportunity to listen, intently and sincerely, to nature.  Finally, students will develop their abilities to express the forgotten language in a medium that uses language.

Course Requirements
Students in Environmental Literature will complete all readings in a timely fashion and come to class ready for discussion of these readings (please see the Tentative Syllabus below for a list of readings).  In addition, students will complete all assignments (please see Course Assignments below) and will be encouraged to participate in two experiences:  the Forgotten Language Tour and the Riverwoods Retreat. See below or see http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/courses/LIT4404/tours.htm for more information.

The Forgotten Language Tour:  From Saturday, October 21 through Monday, October 23, we will host several contemporary writers who will provide readings and workshops both on Sanibel Island and the FGCU campus. Students will be encouraged to participate in as many events as possible, but especially in the readings and discussions on Saturday, October 21 (on Sanibel Island) and the readings and discussions on Monday, October 23 (on the FGCU campus).  Additional events will occur on Sunday, October 22 on Sanibel Island.
Our leg of the Forgotten Language Tour will bring attention to the destruction of the forgotten Western Everglades. The Orion Society describes the tour as a gathering of “leading writers and poets that offers a series of readings, workshops, and discussions that promote nature literacy – a deeper, more dynamic and creative understanding of our relationship with the natural world – and offers new ways of envisioning community. Now in its eighth year, The Forgotten Language Tour draws on our country’s great barnstorming and storytelling traditions, attempting to bring communities together in the recognition that the health of the human community is inextricably bound with that of the natural world.” (Please see http://www.orionsociety.org/flt.html for more information on the Tour). 

Riverwoods Retreat:  On Saturday, November 18, we will gather at Riverwoods Field Laboratory (RFL) near Lake Okeechobee for an encounter with the environment and for sharing presentations.  Students will be encouraged to spend all day Saturday at Riverwoods and will have the opportunity to spend the evening in their lodge. 
RFL “is a facility jointly funded by the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Center for Environmental Studies whose main mission is to support research and educational activities related to the restoration of the Kissimmee River and the ecology of Lake Okeechobee. Established in 1994, it coordinates the activities of research scientists, students, and technicians from state and out of state organizations and institutions, including universities, water management agencies and other organizations.  RFL is also a place where Florida educators and students come to learn, through workshops and other indoor and outdoor activities, about some of the pressing aquatic issues that affect the region, such as water quality and pollution, ecosystem health and regeneration, natural vs. manmade wetlands as well as other topics.” (Please see http://riverwoods.ces.fau.edu/ for more information.)

Course Assignments
Reflections and Research Presentations:  students will bring an informal, written reflection to each class on the literary work to be discussed that day.  In the reflection, you might pause on a particular passage, or a set of images, or on a theme in the text that you feel captures the forgotten language, that expresses the natural world in a way that moves you.  In your reflection, you might discuss the passage and describe how it impacts you.

In addition, students will be responsible for setting the context for the writers that we read. Each student will select particular aspects of the context—including information on the writers’ lives, their activist causes, the body of their literary work, and their places—that they will research and present to the class. Beyond providing the class with a foundation for understanding the works, these presentations also need to be tied to some aspect of the works—a specific passage, or the form of the text, or a theme that runs throughout the text.  These presentations will occur at the beginning of the class meeting on which the literary work is discussed.

Teaching Presentation:  students will work in groups to prepare a teaching presentation on a writer and work that we are not reading as a class.  Presentations should be 30-45 minutes in length, should include supporting materials, and should provide information on the writers’ lives, their activist causes, the body of their literary work, and their places, as well as a teaching presentation on a selection from one of their literary works. Students will need to determine their groups and confirm their writer by October 2;  students will also need to confirm their teaching selection two weeks before their presentation.

Recapturing the Forgotten Language:  students will compose an original piece that demonstrates their own connection to nature through the use of language.  These works can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, an oral presentation, readers theatre, a song, a prose poem, a play—any format that uses the medium of language.

Final Exam:  students will complete an out of class final exam.  The exam will likely be essay in format and will expect students to demonstrate a synthesis of their learning experiences.

Class Participation/Group Journal:  students will be expected to actively participate in the class in order to develop and become a part of our learning community.  In addition, students will need to regularly contribute to the Group Journal.

Grades
Any work turned in late (ie, after the beginning of class on the due date) may be down graded one letter grade per day late. Academic honesty is expected in this class, as in any university class;  please consult the student handbook for the university’s policy on academic dishonesty.

     Reflections and Research Presentations 20%
     Teaching Presentation 20%
     Recapturing the Forgotten Language 20%
     Final Exam 20%
     Class Participation/Group Journal 20%
The grading scale for the class will be as follows:
    A   4.0 =Excellent Work 
    A-   3.7 
    B+   3.3 
    B   3.0 =Strong Work 
    B-   2.7 
    C+   2.3
    C   2.0 =Average/Satisfactory Work
    C-   1.7
    D+   1.3
    D   1.0 =Below Average
    F   0
Attendance
Attendance and promptness are expected in this class. Please let us know in advance if you will be missing a class (though this will not “excuse” your absence).  We reserve the right to lower your final letter grade due to a high number of absences or lateness. 

Tentative Syllabus

M Aug 28—Course Introduction

M Sept 4—Labor Day Holiday; No Class

M Sept 11—19th and 20th century environmental literature

Emerson, "The Poet" bottom 1682-bottom 1656
Dickinson, Poems # 327, 258, 324
Thoreau, Walden middle 209-middle 216
Griffin, "Matter" 223-27, "This Earth" 219
Carson, Silent Spring 1-13
Muir, "The Wind-Storm" 280-87
This material is on reserve in the library; it is also available at the following URLs: M Sept 18—Pattiann Rogers, The Dream of the Marsh Wren 

M Sept 25—Richard Nelson, The Island Within

M Oct 2—Robert Michael Pyle, The Thunder Tree

M Oct 9—Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

M Oct 16—Peter Matthiessen, Killing Mr. Watson

Sat Oct 21—Forgotten Language Tour events
Sun Oct 22— Forgotten Language Tour events
M Oct 23— Forgotten Language Tour events (in class and after class)

M Oct 30— Forgotten Language Tour debriefing;  move towards Riverwoods project

M Nov 6—Native American Perspectives on Land and Language

M Nov 13—Teaching Presentations

Sat Nov 18—Riverwoods Retreat
Sun Nov 19—Riverwoods Retreat

M Nov 20—Teaching Presentations

M Nov 27—Teaching Presentations
Forgotten Language piece Due

M Dec 4—Final Exams Due

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