Single Author or Special Topic: Women & the Green World

The course will explore the ways in which women writers relate to, and write about, the green world. Has the world of plants, forests, and herbs, as Linda Baron and Brenda Peterson claim, "long been the province of women" (xi)*? Is women's bond with the plant kingdom inherently different from men's? What motivates women, in particular, to reflect on the "emotional, philosophical, and spiritual aspects"(xii)* of humanity's interaction with the green world? If, as Baron and Peterson maintain, "[t]he green world is fundamental to our identity," how do women create, reflect, and/or interact with such an identity through the craft of writing? These are some of the questions we will examine as we read texts by Isabel Allende, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary Crow Dog, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and others.

Grade Basis: AL
Credit hours: 3.0
Lecture hours: 3.0

Prerequisites:

Restrictions:

  • Offered in Spring Terms
  • Because it deals with multiple authors, this particular version of ENGL 4470 will not count as the single-author course that all English majors must take

Last updated: 03/16/2020