COURSE UNIT TITLE

: NATURE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
AKE 3008 NATURE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE ELECTIVE 3 0 0 5

Offered By

American Culture and Literature

Level of Course Unit

First Cycle Programmes (Bachelor's Degree)

Course Coordinator

PROFESSOR DOCTOR NILSEN GÖKÇEN ULUK

Offered to

American Culture and Literature

Course Objective

This course is designed to present to the students the roots and historical development of approaches to nature and environment in American culture, history, and literature. The students will be introduced to the concepts such as virgin land, wilderness vs. civilizations, and frontier in American history and their extensions to the environmental debates on preservation vs. conservation, bio-centrism vs. anthropocentrism, technology and progress vs. primitivism and sustainable development. They will develop an understanding of the recent concerns and types of environmental discourse and their major principles. The students will not only read material that discusses theoretical and historical aspects of these concerns but also study literary texts from the perspective that such material exposes to them. They are expected to reach an understanding of the environment as an essential arena of power relations that interacts intimately with race, gender, and class.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   To learn American history from the perspective of human-nature relations,
2   To learn basic ecological schools and theories,
3   To understand the basic tenets of eco-criticism in evaluating literary texts,
4   To be able to speak and write persuasively on environmental issues,
5   To develop an environmental sensibility towards human and non-human nature.

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Introductions: Wilderness and the American Mind, Prologue and chps. 1-4. Lecture and Discussion
2 The Rights of Nature, Prologue, chps 1-4. Merchant Chp 1: What is Environmental History Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
3 The Idea of Wilderness, chps. 1-4; Young Goodman Brown Merchant Chps 3-4: The New England Forest in the 17th Century, Soil Exhaustion in the Early Tobacco South Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
4 Uncommon Ground, The Trouble with Wilderness, Reinventing Eden ; Rappaccini s Daughter Merchant Chp 5: Farm Ecology in the Early Republic Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
5 The Rights of Nature, chps. 5-6, Epilogue; Nature The Idea of Wilderness, chp. 5. Merchant Chp 6-7: Nature versus Civilization in the 19th Century, The Cotton South Before and After the Civil War. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
6 Henry David Thoreau, Walden, chps. 10-18; The Idea of Wilderness, chp. 5. Merchant Chp 8-9: Mining California s Earth in the 19th Century, Great Plains Grasslands Exploited. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
7 John Muir: Wilderness and the American Mind, chps. 8-10; The Idea of Wilderness, chp. 6. Merchant Chp 10: Resource Conservation in an Industrializing Society. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
8 Midterm Exam
9 Aldo Leopold: Wilderness and the American Mind, chps. 10-16. Epilogue; The Idea of Wilderness, chp. 7. Merchant Chp 11-12: Wilderness Preservation at the Turn of the Century, Urban Pollution and Reform in the 20th Century. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
10 Gary Snyder and Robinson Jeffers: The Idea of Wilderness, chp. 8. Merchant Chp 13-14: The Emergence of Ecology in the 20th Century, From Conservation to Environment in the Mid-20th Century. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
11 Uncommon Ground, On the Search for a Root Cause Merchant Chp 15: Contemporary Environmental Movement. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
12 Alternatives to Modern Visions: Native American Worldview and Culture; Lame Deer, Homeland Merchant Chp. 2: Native American Ecology and European Contact Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
13 Aldo Leopold: Wilderness and the American Mind, chps. 10-16, Epilogue; The Idea of Wilderness, chp. 7. Merchant Chp 11-12: Wilderness Preservation at the Turn of the Century, Urban Pollution and Reform in the 20th Century. Lecture, Text Analysis, Discussion and Student Presentations
14 Wrap up

Recomended or Required Reading

History and Theory:

William Cronon, Uncommon Ground
Roderick Frazier Nash, The Rights of Nature
---., Wilderness and the American Mind
Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness
Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation.
Carolyn Merchant, Major Problems in American Environmental History
George Sessions, Deep Ecology for the 21st Century.

Fiction and Literature:

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown, Rappaccini s Daughter
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Barbara Kingsolver, Homeland
John Updike, Cats
Lame Deer Seeker of Visions.
Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lectures
Text Analysis
Class Discussion
Presentations

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE 1 MIDTERM EXAM 1
2 FIN FINAL EXAM
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE 1 * 0.50 + FIN * 0.50
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE 1 * 0.50 + RST * 0.50


*** Resit Exam is Not Administered in Institutions Where Resit is not Applicable.

Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

If either the midterm or the final of this course involves writing a research paper, the minimum criteria in the evaluation of this assignment will be the sensibleness and coherence of the argument, fluency of the development of ideas and thoughts, the quality and range of research, the intellectual level of the analyses and syntheses of the sources, their integration to the main idea, and the success in the accuracy, fluency in the idiomatic usage of language.
The minimum criteria for the in-class exam with essay type questions include the logical associations with the question, coherence and consistency in the unfolding and development of the idea(s), and the accurate and fluent usage of language.
In the quizzes, the questions are tailored to evaluate the student s class preparation for the day; therefore, they will be based on facts, rather than interpretations of the assigned materials.
In all sorts of exams, personal interpretations must be supported by facts and fact-based knowledge on the part of the student.
The grade from class participation will be earned based on the intellectual level of the student s class participation in discussions.
In the presentations the minimum criteria for evaluation include an overall command of material, clarity and succinctness of verbal expression, organization of thoughts and ideas, timing, and the knowledgeableness of the presenting student in answering questions in the ensuing discussion.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

This course includes lectures and class discussions. The professor will provide much of the context for readings in lectures while the students are to read and evaluate the assigned text for each week. In addition from the second week on, one hour of the class is allocated to student presentations. Performance at these presentations and class participation will affect the overall grade from this course. In addition to the midterm and the final exams, there will also be pop quizzes from this course based on the assigned reading for the week.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

Office phone: 232 301 8678
E-mail: gokcenils@yahoo.com

Office Hours

By appointment

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 13 3 39
Preparing presentations 1 5 5
Preparation for quiz etc. 3 1 3
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 13 3 39
Preparation for midterm exam 1 12 12
Preparation for final exam 1 18 18
Preparing assignments 1 13 13
Final 1 2 2
Midterm 1 2 2
Quiz etc. 3 1 3
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 136

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14
LO.14545
LO.25554545
LO.35555
LO.45544555555
LO.5555

CONTACT INFORMATION
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Cumhuriyet Bulvarı No: 144 35210 Alsancak / İZMİR
Phone: +90(232) 412 12 12 - Fax: +90 (232) 464 81 35

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