Syllabus

Date	Readings	Assignments
September
10 Th	Course Introduction: Literature and Nature "Land as Canvas, Plants as Paint" by Dorothy Spears, 21 August 2009. New York Times
12 Sat	North Woods Stewardship Day Guided Walks and tours at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.
15 T	Genesis 1.1-3.24; 5.28-11.9 Psalm 104 Job 38
17 TH	Native American Creation Myths (handout) Luther Standing Bear, "Nature" (LE 273)
22 T	The Green Man (handout) Green Man Power Point Presentation "The Human Shrub Strikes Again!" "Swamp Thing, the All-Vegetable Anti-Hero, Returns"	Topic for Paper 1 Distributed in Class
24 TH	Nature in Seventeenth-Century Poetry The New World (2005), film excerpt Herbert: "Man," "Providence" (handout) Marvell: "The Garden," "Upon Appleton House" (handout) "Land as Canvas, Plants as Paint": Artists' Gardens Cooper. The Last of the Mohicans, excerpt (a Hudson River handout) Bryson, A Walk in the Woods, chapter 10 (handout)
29 T	Emerson. "Nature" (handout) Van Hook. Treasure in the North Woods: Preface and Chapter 1	Literature and the North Woods Project Snapshot #1
October
1 TH	Emerson. "Nature" Class Tag Cloud of Emerson's "Nature"
6 T	Thoreau. Walden: "Where I lived, and What I Lived For" Word Cloud for "Where I lived. . ." Walden (2004), film.
8 TH	Thoreau. Walden: "Solitude" and "Spring" Thoreau Word Clouds
13 T	Cole. "The Wild" (a Hudson River handout) Berry. "An Entrance to the Woods" (handout)
15 TH	Bird. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains	Literature and the North Woods Project Snapshot #2
20 T	Bird. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
22 TH	Wordsworth. "The World Is Too Much with Us" (LE 355), "I wandered lonely as a cloud " (handout) Whitman. "I think I could turn and live with animals" (LE 66)	Paper 1 Due in Class
27 T	Burroughs. "Our River" (a Hudson River handout) Whitman. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (a Hudson River handout) Van Hook. Treasure in the North Woods: Chapters 3 and 4	Class Field Trip to the Tang Museum's Lives of the Hudson*
29 TH	Muir. "A Wind-Storm in the Forest" (LE 178)
November
3 T	Leopold. "The Land Ethic" (handout) and "Thinking Like a Mountain" (LE 148)	Literature and the North Woods Project Snapshot #3
5 TH	London, "To Build a Fire" (LE 31) [Robert Frost. "Fire and Ice" Gary Snyder. "Lifetimes with Fire" "Fire School: Fighting Fire With Fire"]	Paper Topics Distributed in Class
10 T	Abbey. Desert Solitaire
12 TH	Abbey. Desert Solitaire. Utah Wilderness Power point Presenation Van Hook. Treasure in the North Woods: Chapters 5 and 6
17 T	Tempest Williams. Refuge Tempest Williams. "A Eulogy for Edward Abbey" (handout)	Literature and the North Woods Project Snapshot #4
18 W	Withdrawl Deadline
19 TH	Tempest Williams. Refuge Tempest Williams. "The Erotic Landscape" (LE 28)
24 T	Tempest Williams. Refuge	Paper Working Draft Due for Peer Critique Exchange Guidelines for Peer Critique Letters
25-30	Thanksgiving Vacation
December
1 T	Kingsolver. Prodigal Summer Radio Lab. "Emergence." (audio podcast)	Peer Critiques Due in Class
3 TH	Kingsolver. Prodigal Summer Bryson, A Walk in the Woods, chapter 10 revisited (handout)
8 T	Kingsolver. Prodigal Summer	Final Version of Paper Due
10 TH	Joyce Carol Oates. "Against Nature" (handout) Course Evaluations
18 F	Final Examination Period: 9:00 am - Noon	Literature and the North Woods Projects Presentation: 302 PMH