76-319 Environmental Rhetoric

Units: 9.0 Department: English Cross-listed: 76-719 Related URLs: http://hss.cmu.edu/HTML/departments/engl Who speaks for Nature? The poet, the hiker, the rancher, the scientist, or the activist? How do theses different stances represent the meaning of environment in their words and actions? This introduction to ways we talk about the environment and understand our relation to the natural world will trace an American history that has combined mystical celebration with militant critique, and scientific research with public debate. We will read some of the landmark voices in this public discussion, which includes writers such as Henry Thoreau, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, and we will see their influence in popular films and activist groups, from the radical Earth First! to Greenpeace, to the mainstream Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy. We will explore the competing discourses that have emerged in the American debate ( the conservationists versus preservationists, the scientific ecologists versus deep ecologists), looking at both their rhetorical strategies and their response to the fundamental environmental question: is nature best understood as a resource, as an object of scientific inquiry, or as spirit? Over the course, students will also create an issue book on an environmental issue of their choice in which they will be able to analyze and compare multiple discourses surrounding that issue (from scientific reports, policy discussions, and activist organizing in media and fiction, to naturalist observation and experiential reflection) with the goal of also making their own contribution.

Popularity index Rank for this semester: #0 Rank in this department: #0   Students also scheduled 82-416 Topics in French and Francophone St... 88-332 Foreign Aid: The US, EU, and the De... 76-418 Political Rhetoric 70-643 Publishing on the World Wide Web 98-000 Student Taught Courses (StuCo): Tea... 98-011 Student Taught Courses (StuCo): Fig... 82-135 Intensive Elementary Chinese 62-241 Black and White Photography II 60-453 Advanced PDP: Painting 60-415 Advanced ETB: 3-D Animation

Spring 2005 times

No sections available for semester Spring 2005.