Literature and Film in the Era of Environmentalism



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ENGLISH/ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 122NE

Professor Stephanie LeMenager

2-3:15pm T-R

Girvetz 1116



Literature and Film in the Era of Environmentalism

This course approaches environmentalism as an aspect of culture and imagination as well as a political movement. Our archive for the course includes novels, films, memoirs, and our everyday lives. I date contemporary environmentalism to nuclear-fallout anxieties of the 1950s, although the course does not follow a chronological trajectory. We will watch two feature-length films that ignite environmental concerns. The aims of the course are to: 1) familiarize you with twentieth and twenty-first century environmental media, namely films and literature; 2) assist you in effectively analyzing this media as art, rhetoric, and political discourse; 3) encourage you to engage creatively with the world around you, to write or tell your own environmental stories. I ask for strong participation from students as co-authors not only of this class but also of the meaning of environmentalism as a philosophy, ethical practice, and creative endeavor.


Course Readers are available at Associated Students in the Corwin Pavilion.
Assignments

Participation 10% You are expected to attend class and to keep up with course readings. To insure strong participation, it is recommended that you bring a question or comment to each class, relevant to class readings or screenings, and be prepared to offer your comment to the group. Attendance will be taken every course period. You are also expected to make 10 blog entries throughout the quarter, using the GauchoSpace site. At least one blog entry must be made in relation to each film that is screened in class. You can pick up on a discussion stream already established or start your own discussion, but your entry needs to express your opinion with substance (in other words, “I agree!” doesn’t count as an entry).

Course Project (dates throughout quarter) 35%

The course project is the central assignment of the quarter, requires teamwork as well as independent research, and will culminate in a presentation to the class along with individual (6-8 pp.) papers written by team members. See course project hand-out for specific details.



Field Trip 5%

You are required to take a tour of UCSB’s Coal Oil Point Reserve http://coaloilpoint.ucnrs.org/ sometime this quarter. Scheduled tour dates/times are listed on the above website. I also arrange a group tour for our class on one Saturday of the quarter, TBA. The field-trip lasts approximately three hours. To receive credit, you will write a one-page analysis of the reserve tour as a performance, taking into account the “scripts” used to describe the reserve, how views were crafted by the tour guide, and what may have been deliberately left out of the tour experience.



Take-Home Midterm 20%

The take-home midterm offers an opportunity to respond to course readings, lecture, and discussion. You will be asked to identify and analyze passages from texts we have read and reflect on terminology we’ve used in the course. The exam should take approximately one course period (1 hour and 15 minutes) to complete. Due 11/6.



Take-Home Final 30% The take-home final consists of TWO PARTS. The first part asks for term and passage identifications from course readings (30% of total grade). The second part consists of a 3-4 page typewritten description of the lifecycle of your favorite consumer item (70% of total grade). Try to find out as much as you can about how your favorite consumer item is made, what materials and manufacturing processes are used, etc. Use the book Stuff—excerpted in your READER—as a guide for how to write this kind of analysis. Include all research materials that you used to document the life of your favorite “stuff” in a Works Cited page at the end of the final. Internet sources as well as interviews with persons who sell or manufacture your “stuff” are acceptable sources. This is a consumer research experiment. Due 12/13.
Schedule

9/27 Introduction


APOCALYPSE

10/2


Rachel Carson, Excerpts from Silent Spring (1962) in READER

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)


10/4

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)


10/9

Bill McKibben, “The End of Nature” (1989) in READER

Naomi Oreskes, “The Truth about Climate Change: How Do We Know We’re Not Wrong?” (2007)
10/11

Student Moderated Discussion of The Island President (Dir. Jon Shenk, 2012)

Every student brings a question about the film to share with the class
CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION

10/16 Edward Abbey, “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks” (1968) in READER

Excerpts from The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (dir. Ken Burns, 2009)
10/23 E.O. Wilson, “Berhardsdorp,” “The Bird of Paradise,” “The Right Place,” “The Conservation Ethic” in Biophilia (1984)
10/25 Continue focal chapters in Biophilia

Peter H. Kahn, “Children’s Affiliations with Nature: Structure, Development, and the Problem of Environmental Generational Amnesia” (2002) in READER

10/30 Conservation/Preservation Project
ANIMAL –HUMAN RELATIONS

11/1 Gail F. Melson, “Reaching Across the Divide” and “Learning from Animals” (2005) in READER



Each student brings one childhood animal story relevant to critical readings to share with class

Take-Home Midterm Distributed in Class
11/6 Vicki Hearne, “A Walk with Washoe: How Far Can We Go?” (1982) in READER

Begin In-Class Viewing of Project Nim (dir. James Marsh, 2011)



Take-Home Midterm Due in Class
11/8 Finish and Student Moderated Discussion of Project Nim

Every student brings one question about the film to share with the class
11/13 Animal-Human Relations Project
THE LIFE CYCLE OF THINGS
11/15 Susanne Antonetta, Body Toxic (2001)
11/20 Susanne Antonetta, Body Toxic (2001)
11/22 Thanksgiving Holiday
11/27 Student Moderated Discussion of Annie Leonard, Story of Stuff and Story of Change (Watch Story of Stuff and Story of Change Films and Prepare to Discuss) @ http://www.storyofstuff.org/
11/29 Garbage Project
12/4 Michael Pollan, Excerpt from The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) in READER

“Hamburger,” “French Fries,” “Cola,” from Stuff (1997)


12/6 Local Food Project/Party
12/13 Final Exam due to Professor LeMenager in SH 2505 or via email by 5pm

Course Projects
The class will be divided into four teams of approximately ten students to participate in a course project that combines on-the-ground research with writing, a research paper and a team presentation. Each team will be expected to meet at least twice; you will share information and decide how you want to convey a single “story” about what you’ve found to the class. Your team presentation to the class can be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, a Poster presentation, or an oral presentation in which different team members speak, in a polished manner and from notes, to specific aspects of the project. Your presentations should last no longer than one hour so you must CAREFULLY TIME each member’s participation and, if necessary, choose a limited number of team members to sum up the group’s research. 40% of your Project grade is the presentation; 60% the individual research paper.
The four Course Projects are as follows:


  1. Conservation/Preservation Project. Your team will consider local coastal conservation and preservation efforts in Santa Barbara and/or Ventura counties. Some team members may want to offer an historical narrative of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969, or the development of Channel Islands National Park, while others might discuss specific conservation and preservation projects underway at UCSB (such as the Coal Oil Point Reserve) or local activism by groups like SurfRider. Your paper may include personal reflection on your participation in coastal activities such as surfing, kayaking, bird-watching, sunbathing, bonfire parties, Floatopia, and swimming. You may also speak to damage/pollution you personally have noticed or created. Team presentation due 10/30. Papers due within five days after presentation.




  1. Animal-Human Relations Project. Your team might approach local area animal shelters, veterinarians, animal trainers, pet boutiques, science labs, farms, or zoos to gain a better sense of how we culturally produce and consume animals—or, in a more positive light, how we develop familial and companionate bonds with them. Your research might consist primarily of interviews, or description of observation (eg. you do a “reading” of the local zoo). Alternately, you may choose a topic that can be researched in the library—for example, how the animal rights movement developed in the US. Your essay may also include personal reflections upon your own or your friends’ relationships with animals. Team presentation and papers due 11/13. Papers due within five days after presentation.




  1. Garbage Project. Your team will look at garbage, from multiple perspectives. Topics include tracing the life of garbage at it moves from various UCSB units (dorms, classroom buildings, etc.) to its final destination, tracing recycled materials as they leave UCSB to discover where they end up, conceiving more efficient or sustainable treatments for UCSB garbage, investigating how students or building maintenance workers or faculty members think and feel about their garbage, and looking at why garbage has been a favorite subject of art, in poems like Walt Whitman’s “This Compost,” films such as Wall-E, and photography by contemporary environmental photographers such as Edward Burtynsky. You might also want to visit the local landfill, interview garbage pickers in Isla Vista, or research alternative “green” waste systems. Team presentation and papers due 11/29. Papers due within five days after presentation.




  1. Local Food Project. Your team’s project will be to raise awareness about local food options—or lack thereof—in and around UCSB while considering food as a crucial link between nature and culture. Team members might interview area markets or restaurants that use local food providers or look into UCSB’s efforts to bring local food into campus foodservice. You could do a story on one community garden or local food producer, such as Fairview Gardens in Goleta; you might write a brief narrative history of the Slow Food movement and interview some Slow Food practitioners in Santa Barbara—or host a Slow Food dinner and reflect upon that experience. You might practice locavorism, or look into “local” food arts movements, such as Fallen Fruit. In all cases, consider how food contributes to ordinary people’s understanding of their place in non-human systems and a particular human culture. This team presentation will correspond with a party where class members are invited to bring in recipes (and dishes) made with local foods. Team presentation due 12/6. Papers due within five days afterwards.


Research

The first meeting of your research team will include a dividing of research tasks among team members, some of whom will do on-the-ground research such as interviews with local people and others who will visit our campus libraries to conduct more traditional research. Web research may also be necessary. I will share with you my knowledge about useful sources in a handout I give to each group. UCSB’s research librarian for Environmental Studies and local, California issues is Janet Martorana. You may contact her via email to set up an appointment at: martoran@library.ucsb.edu. The following web guides for conducting interviews may be useful. Be sure to ask permission to take notes or record any interview!!

Websites on effective and ethical interviewing:

http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/tip11.html

http://www.nt.armstrong.edu/effective-interviews.htm


Papers

Your 6-8 page essay should address an aspect of your project that particularly engrosses you, as an individual—but also an aspect that you would like to share with a larger public. In other words, this isn’t a project about yourself in an introspective sense, but rather about what interests you as a citizen of a larger community. We will not attempt to publish these papers, but consider them as if they were to be published for UCSB’s undergraduate community. Here is a rough guide for how to begin: First, pick a theme or problem within the team project that excites you. Second, do the research necessary to speak in an informed manner about that topic. You should use at minimum THREE sources for your research: sources may include interviews, academic or journalistic writings, and respected Internet sources (ask if doubtful!!). Use the MLA Style Guide for Research Papers to cite your sources appropriately. Include a Works Cited page with your paper. Once you have done your research, develop a statement of argument or “angle” on the research—also known as a thesis statement!—and carefully organize a set of points to back it up and develop it. Finally, don’t be afraid to use the word “I” in this essay and to allow your feelings about what you have researched into the argument. Your essay should recount an aspect of environmental history or a current environmental problem accurately but with the added intention of moving your reader. This means that direct appeals to the emotions and senses, through statements of feeling or descriptions that evoke a sense of “being there,” are encouraged. This is a research paper PLUS your point-of-view, your creative edge, your passion.


Duke University’s Writing Studio Website offers useful short guidelines for “Creative Non-Fiction”: http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/wstudio
Presentations

Presentations should draw from team members’ collective research to create the most comprehensive treatment of the project theme that can be communicated to the class in an entertaining 60-minute presentation. Your goal is to inform and to excite emotions and sensations. The team should elect different members to speak in class and to collaborate on visual aids such as posters, PowerPoint slides, or photo-essays. Elect an official time-keeper to be sure you’re on track as you perform the presentations.



Web Resource on Effective PowerPoint Slides:

http://www.iasted.org/conferences/formatting/Presentations-Tips.ppt

As discussed above re: the Poster Presentation, the slides are the ground from which a more personalized oral narrative should be developed.

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