Paper Topics

Aldo Leopold argues for the creation of a Land Ethic to preserve and conserve the environment. Using the works of Abbey, Tempest Williams, and McKibben, investigate the state of the Land Ethic in the United States some 60 years after Leopold wrote his seminal essay. In your paper, consider the following questions: What is a Land Ethic? Is it reflected in the work of these writers? Is a Land Ethic still relevant?

Many of the writers we have encountered this semester write about going ³into the woods² or ³into the wild.² Compare and contrast how three different authors have used this trope. In your paper, consider the following: What are their reasons for going into the woods? What is the meaning of going into the woods for these writers? What is the effect of going into the woods for these authors? Is coming out of the woods equally significant for these writers? Why or why not?

Emerson, Thoreau, and McKibben can be viewed as nature writers of the Eastern United States. In contrast, we can group Bird, Abbey, and Tempest Williams as nature writers of the Western United States. Explore the impact of geography on writing by comparing and contrasting how these writers use different (or similar) descriptive techniques to present these starkly different landscapes.

In one of his footnotes to ³Where I lived and What I lived For,² Thoreau editor Bill McKibben observes: ³Those who persist in imagining that Walden is a collection of nature essays might note that it is only here we meet the pond² (80). Why does the label ³nature essays² seem to be an inadequate or incorrect description of Walden? How would you classify or characterize this work and its purpose? Using the three essays we read in class and others of your own choice, support your own classification of Walden.

Although developed most fully by Terry Tempest Williams in Refuge, many of the writers we have read this semester have noted a relationship between nature and the body. Compare and constrast the relationship that Williams posits between the environment and the health (physical and/or psychological) of the body. In particular, consider how this relationship is presented figuratively and literally.

Professor Cheryll Glotfelty, one of the founders of ecocriticism, explains: ³Simply defined, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment.² In Beginning: Theory An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Professor Peter Barry elaborates that an ecocritical reading of a work of literature ³Often . . . is just a matter of approaching perhaps very familiar texts with a new alertness to this dimension {the relationship between literature and the physical environment], a dimension which has perhaps always hovered above the text, but without ever receiving our full attention before² (258). Barry summarizes that ecocritics

re-read major works from an ecocentirc perspective, with particular attention to the representation of the natural world.
extend the applicability of a range of ecocentric concepts using them for things other than the natural world-concepts such as growth and energy, balance and imbalance, symbiosis and mutuality, and sustainable or unsustainable use of energy and resources.
emphasise ecocentric values of meticulous observation, collective ethical responsibility, and the claims of the world beyond ourselves. (264)

Using these definitions of ecocriticism as a guideline, write your own ecocritical analysis of a work of fiction or literature with which you are already familiar. In writing your analysis, consider what the ecocritical reading reveals or highlights about the work. Remember, the work does not need to be overtly about nature and the environment, as has been the focus of the texts we have read this semester.

A topic of your own proposal.