THE IMAGINED LANDSCAPE: 1996 Syllabus



In the Fall of 1996, Jan Dizard, Thomas Looker, and Kevin Sweeney taught ILS 7. What follows is the list of books students were asked to buy for the course and the final syllabus for the semester.



Books to be bought. . .

Peggy Pond Church, The House at Otowi Bridge

William Cronon, Changes in the Land

Jan Dizard, Going Wild

Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac

Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden

John McPhee, The Control of Nature

Henry Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings (Modern Library edition)

Other readings were included in a Xeroxed collection of documents.


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THE IMAGINED LANDSCAPE: Syllabus

1. MAKING IMAGES OF THE EARTH

Discussion of: Movie and upcoming writing assignment.
Also, what is your favorite landscape? What do you see there? Why?

Reading: Henry Thoreau, "Walking," in Walden and Other Writings, pp. 597-632

Reading: New English Bible, Genesis: "The Creation," "The Flood." (Xerox)
Selections from William Bradford and Cotton Mather (Xerox)

Reading: Native American Myths: The World on a Turtle's Back; The First Ottawas; Origin of the Creek Confederacy; The Navajo Creation Story (Xerox)

Reading: Cronon, Changes in the Land, Ch. 5 (pp. 82-107); SKIM Ch. 4 (pp. 54-81)
Michael Zuckerman, "Puritans in the Wilderness" (Xerox)

Reading: Selections from Jonathan Edwards (Xerox)
Richard White and William Cronon, "Ecological Change and Indian-White Relations" (Xerox)
Robert Beverley in Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden, pp. 75-88


2. NEW NATION, NEW LANDSCAPE

Reading: Thomas Jefferson, Selections from: Notes on Virginia (Xerox)
Jefferson, "Instructions to Meriwether Lewis" (Xerox)
Meriwether Lewis, Selections from Journals (Xerox)

Reading: Marx, The Machine in the Garden, pp. 145-169; 190-226
Peter Jones, "The Wealth of the Factory" (Xerox)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selections from Essays: "Nature," and "The Young American" (Xerox)

Reading: Thoreau, Walden: "Economy," pp. 3-40 only; "Where I Lived and What I Lived For," "Sounds," and "The Bean Field."

Reading: Thoreau, Walden: "The Ponds"; "Higher Laws"; "Brute Neighbors," pp. 220-223 only

[FALL BREAK]

Reading: Thoreau, Walden: "The Pond in Winter," "Spring."
(Optional: Marx, Machine in the Garden, pp. 242-265.)

Reading: Walt Whitman, "Locomotive in Winter" (Xerox)
Emily Dickinson, "I love to see it lap the miles . . ." (Xerox)

Reading: Reading: John Muir, Excerpts: "First Glimpse of the Sierra," "On the Brink of Yosemite Falls," "The Bear the Fly and the Grasshopper," "Emerson at Yosemite," and "The Earthquake." (Xerox)
Teddy Roosevelt, Selections (Xerox)
Gifford Pinchot, Selections from The Fight for Conservation (Xerox)

Reading: Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac, "Wilderness," and "The Land Ethic," pp. 188-226; "Marshland Elegy," pp. 95-101; "Thinking Like a Mountain," pp. 129-137
Also: January: “January Thaw”; April: “Bur Oak”; July: “Prairie Birthday”; August: “The Green Pasture”; November: “If I Were The Wind,” “Axe-in-Hand”; December: “65290.”


3. CONTESTING THE LAND

Reading: Peggy Pond Church, The House at Otowi Bridge, pp. 1-79

Reading: Church, The House at Otowi Bridge, pp. 80-118

Reading: John McPhee, The Control of Nature, "Los Angeles Against the Mountains," pp. 183-272

Reading: Wendell Berry, Excerpts from What are People For? (Xerox)

Reading: Thomas Berry, "The Viable Human"; George Sessions, "Introduction"; Bill Devall and George Sessions, "Deep Ecology"; Richard Watson, "A Critique of Anti-Anthropocentric Biocentrism"; Brian Luke, "Taming Ourselves or Going Feral?" (Xerox)

Reading: Murray Bookchin, "Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology" (Xerox)


4. YEARNING FOR RESOLUTION, LIVING WITH AMBIGUITY

Reading: Donald Worster, "The Ecology of Order and Chaos" (Xerox)
Daniel Botkin, Selections from Discordant Harmonies: "Moose in the Wilderness...", "The Moon in the Nautilus Shell..." (Xerox)

[THANKSGIVING VACATION]

Reading: Jan Dizard, Going Wild, pp. 3-94

Reading: Dizard, Going Wild, pp. 95-172

Reading: William Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness" (Xerox)
Donald M. Waller, "Getting Back to the Right of Nature" (Xerox)


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Last revision: January 21st, 1997