AJ55011 Topics in Literature: North American Literary Landscapes

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 10 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. et Mgr. Kateřina Prajznerová, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
Fri 11:40–13:15 G32
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course focuses on North American environmental literature, with a particular emphasis on contemporary fiction. The readings cover a variety of geo-cultural landscapes throughout Canada and the US. Among the questions that this course poses are the following: How does our view of the nonhuman world affect our reading of literature? How does our view of literature affect our reading of the nonhuman world? What is the relation between environmental experience and literary representation of the environment? How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? How have North American writers responded to their landscapes? How do their responses negotiate the interplay of the cultural and natural histories of North America? To address these and other related issues, we will discuss works by Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, Ivan Doig, Linda Hogan, Gloria Naylor, Ron Rash, and Thomas Wharton.
Syllabus
  • Week 1 / Orientation
  • Week 2 / Class session I on Oct. 2, introduction, course policies and assignments
  • Unit A: Reading the North Week 3 / Margaret Atwood, Surfacing Week 4 / Linda Hogan, Solar Storms Class session II on Oct. 16, response paper due on Wednesday Oct. 14 by noon
  • Unit B: Reading the Southeast Week 5 / Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides Week 6 / Ron Rash, One Foot in Eden Week 7 / Gloria Naylor, Mama Day Class session III on Nov. 6, response paper due on Wednesday Nov. 4 by noon
  • Unit C: Reading the Far West Week 8 / Thomas Wharton, Icefields. Week 9 / Gail Anderson-Dargatz, A Recipe for Bees. Week 10 / Ivan Doig, Winter Brothers. Class session IV on Nov. 27, response paper due on Wednesday Nov. 25 by noon
  • Week 11 / Field work project due on Wednesday Dec. 2 by noon Week 12 / Paper proposal and annotated bibliography due on Wednesday Dec. 9 by noon Class session V on Dec. 11, feedback on paper proposals, conclusion, course evaluation
Teaching methods
Class sessions will include short presentations, team work, audio-visual learning, and class discussion.
Assessment methods
Participation (10%) Response papers (30%) Field work project (20%) Paper proposal and annotated bibliography (10%) Final research paper (30%)
Assignment guidelines:
Participation
You are expected to attend all class sessions and actively participate in class discussion. If you must miss a class, please send me a note.

Response papers
Purpose: to read critically, notice details, take notes, make connections, return to key passages, gain a deeper appreciation of the assigned texts, clearly formulate one’s own thoughts in writing, get personalized feedback from the instructor, be prepared to participate in class discussion, gradually build up a course portfolio.
Content: a comparison of or a balanced commentary on all the readings assigned for the particular unit, no research, “only” your own creative / critical thoughts, discoveries and opinions based on the primary readings, analytic mini-essays rather than records of personal impressions, narrow focus (particular themes, images, narrative techniques, characters, relationships, issues, contexts, and so on).
Form: eight to ten pages (about 3200 words), double spaced, MLA format, creative title.
Style: clear argumentation, logical organization (introduction, main body, conclusion), coherent paragraphs, integrated citations, academic language.
Due dates: the Wednesdays preceding the class sessions, by noon (Oct. 14, Nov. 4, Nov. 25), submit as echo-assignments in elf.

Field work project
Purpose: to get to better know a place that you are connected to or interested in, to integrate personal environmental experience with reading about the outdoors.
Content: a summary of your experience “out there” (observations from walks, interviews, experiments, volunteer work, internships, etc.).
Form: open (note-book, journal, portfolio, photo-essay, power point presentation, website, or something approximating a ten-page report).
Style: can be more personal and/or informal than is usual in academic discourse.
Due date: Wednesday, Dec. 2 by noon, submit as an echo-assignment in elf.

Paper proposal and annotated bibliography Purpose: to organize your materials and your ideas in preparation for the research paper, to receive feedback on your research before you start writing.
Content: a concise introduction to your topic, a list of your research questions, a preliminary version of your main argument, an outline of structure, a list of the primary as well as secondary sources you have consulted so far and plan to integrate into your paper, a five-sentence summary of each source highlighting why it is useful to you.
Form: title, a full paragraph or a detailed outline, an annotated list of sources, MLA format, double-spaced.
Style: precise, academic language, careful and complete bibliographic information.
Due date: Wednesday, Dec. 9 by noon, submit as an echo-assignment in elf.

Research paper
Purpose: to examine some aspect of environmental literature that interests you, to develop your ideas with the help of a variety of sources, to formulate an argument and support it by convincing evidence.
Content: Preferably, your paper will focus on one (or two or three) of the works we have studied. You may also discuss an author whose work we have not looked at but who is in some way connected to the issues we have covered. You may analyze various literary features (the use of imagery, sources, style) through one critical approach or another, but I especially welcome interdisciplinary perspectives that in some way connect literature, history, and ecology. You are encouraged to draw on the themes that emerged (and re-emerged) in your response papers.
Form: eighteen to twenty pages (about 6500 words, excluding the works cited list), double-spaced, MLA format.
Style: strong argument, clear organization, coherent paragraphs, integrated citations and references, academic language.
Due date: Wednesday, Jan. 20 by noon (1st re-sit Feb. 3, 2nd re-sit Feb. 17), submit as an echo-assignment in elf.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 5x2.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2007, Autumn 2011.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2009, recent)
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