May 12, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2015-2016 
    
Catalog Navigation
  Catalog Home
  About MassArt
  Academic Policies
  Academic Programs
  Academic Resource Center
  Accreditation and Board of Trustees
  Confidentiality of Student Records
  Cross-Registration
  Courses
  Graduate Program Resources
  International Education Center
  Office of the Registrar
  Professional and Continuing Education Courses
  Tuition and Fees
  Student Financial Assistance
HELP
Academic Catalog 2015-2016 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

LALW221 Environmental Writing 3cr.

Through readings and feature films, students study the tradition of nature writing. Students write two contemporary environmental essays that integrate storytelling, personal reflection, and philosophy or science. Primary readings exemplify writings by participants in today’s debate regarding human interaction with natural phenomena. Additional readings include works by premodern Native American writers.  Readings include Walden, Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, Caught Inside: A Surfer’s Year on the California Coast, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man Nature, Climate Change, Cadillac Desert, The Future of Nature, editor Barry Lopez, essays by William Cronon, Bill McKibben, Black Elk Speaks, A Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, Selected works of Sherman Alexie, Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich, and About a Mountain. The course teaches how contemporary environmental writers use personal voice, story telling, and philosophical thought to probe intersections of the human with the natural. It teaches students how they, too, may explore these issues in their own original writing.

Prerequisites: LALW200

Lecture
Spring