LITERATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

FULFILLS:
ENGL 317, ACE 5

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Emily Rau is an Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries and the Editor of the Willa Cather Archive. She received her MA from Lehigh University and her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her dissertation, "Jumping the Tracks: The Railroad in American Literature," explored the intervention of the transcontinental railroad in American literature as it impacted and transformed conceptions of space, place, race, class, identity, and community.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This is a field immersion course in literature and the environment taking place at Cedar Point Biological Station, near Ogallala, Nebraska. In this course, we will immerse ourselves into literature of the Great Plains spanning the past century. Our syllabus prioritizes the work of Indigenous authors, weaving those texts together with works by canonical writers from a settler colonial context in order to offer a more comprehensive perspective on the stories of the Great Plains. This course will closely explore the complex history of the region, while looking towards potential methods for reconciliation and for cultivating a responsible relationship with the space we inhabit.

Throughout this course, we will explore the relationship between literature and the natural environment, introducing concepts such as ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and environmental justice. This is an introductory course and requires no prior knowledge of ecocriticism or environmental literature. Our exploration of literature and the environment will center on discussions of the different ways humans inhabit, claim, and impact the land in the Great Plains, introducing and exploring settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, historical geography, and the production of space.

Beginning with Willa Cather and ending with Diane Wilson, we will explore questions such as: who tells the stories of this space, and how? How does paying attention to space and environment change our understanding of literature and culture? How do we see the stories and histories we read inscribed onto the land around us?

Text List:

• Zitkala-Ša, American Indian Stories (1921)
• Willa Cather, A Lost Lady (1923)
• Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey (1957)
• selections from Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird, editors, Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America (1997)
• selections from Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants(2013)
• selections from Walter Echo Hawk, The Sea of Grass: A Family Tale from the American Heartland (2018)
• Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians (2020)
• selections from Margaret Jacobs, After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation of America's Stolen Lands (2021)
• Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper (2021)

Enroll Now!