120026 VO Literatures in English (2009W)

This advanced course will deal with U.S. American and some Canadian texts from the second half of the 18th century to the early 21st century which reflect an awareness of the beauty but also the fragility of the fauna, flora, and the environment in North America.
A Reader will be provided which will contain excerpts from books by William Bartram and J. J. Audubon, whose books precede the key text of the early ecological movement, Henry David Thoreau's Walden, and pertinent episodes from James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers. Attention will also be paid to the discovery of sublime natural scenery by members of the Hudson River School and the beginnings of the National Park Movement initiated by John Muir. The survey will touch upon representations of the precarious ecosystem in the arid Southwest of the U.S. (cf. Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain, and Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire) and will consider Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, Barbara Kingsolver's recent novel Prodigal Summer, as well as the film documentary by former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Prize Laureate Al Gore.
The program also includes parallel phenomena in British North America/Canada. It will deal with pleas for the preservation of nature in the 1930s (cf. Grey Owl) and will examine the ecological concern in selected texts by Margaret Atwood and Jack Hodgins.
Students are encouraged to read the core texts in the vacations so that they can actively participate in discussions following the analysis of texts and contexts.