Outing photos

Greetings from the End of the Term,
Just wanted to pass along a few photos from last weekend's outing and extend my thanks for some really good presentations. Maybe it's the exercise, maybe it's candlelight, maybe it's some sort of strange out-of-doors magic, but the outing presentation is always leagues better than the presentation of the in-class variety. Care to venture an explanation?

I'm genuinely looking forward to reading your seminar papers.

As always, drop me an e-mail if you have questions, concerns, or if you want to talk things over.

Best,

Kevin

4/20 Blue Mussel outing details

Greetings,

I trust that your annotated bibliographies are going well? Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Remember that we won't meet as a class Wednesday 4/16, but you should put your bibliography in my campus mailbox or slide it under my office door (Soboleff 205) before 6:00pm.

I've read everyone's precis and they look good. I plan to spend some time with them tomorrow, and will return them to you this weekend unless you make other arrangements. You should be prepared to make a 10-15 minute presentation of your seminar paper at the cabin. (Details from the assignment sheet pasted below). Be prepared, also, to ask questions and challenge each others ideas.

Logistics: Per our decision last week, the plan is to meet at the Rec Center on Sunday (4/20) at noon. We'll climb aboard the University van and drive out the road to the trailhead. You should arrive at noon more or less prepared to head out the road.

Tho' the forecast is calling for sunshine, we should of course prepare for rain. The checklist below may help you pack. Please let me know if you need to borrow or check out gear from the Rec Center--they don't have clothing or sleeping bags, but they have sleeping pads, backpacks, and cookstuffs. If everyone who has a stove and cookset can bring them, we should be fine for heating food. I'll bring my water filter to get water from the creek, but it's not particularly efficient. The website suggests that Blue Musell cabin sleeps 8--I plan to sleep outside, so we should be fine for space. Everyone should bring their own food (Sunday lunch, dinner, Monday breakfast, and snacks for the walk out) unless you make prior arrangements to share with others. We can determine our Monday return time at Blue Mussel. Matt has put in his vote for a bit of time to cast flies on Cowee Creek--which I support--but I'm flexible if folks need to get back to town.

I'm surely forgetting something, so post follow up questions or concerns in the comment section here.

See you Sunday!

kevin

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OUTING Presentation Guidelines.
On our course outing to Blue Mussel Cabin, you will make a formal presentation of 10-15 minutes in which you outline your argument, highlight key elements of your evidence to support this argument, and leave us with some questions that you would like help resolving. You're welcome to read an early draft of your essay, if this would be most helpful to you. Remember that you it takes about 2 minutes to read each double-spaced page. We'll leave 10 minutes for discussion of each presentation; the idea is to get some verbal feedback on your ideas as you are working on the paper.

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ODS Program basic backcountry travel personal gear checklist:

• poly base layer x 2
• pile layer (thicker insulation) pant and coat, vest optional
• synthetic or wool socks (one pair liner sock and one pair thicker padding (2x each/day)
  
• pile gloves
• liner gloves
• hat
• a gore-tex or equivalent waterproof outer shell, both pant and coat
• waterproof hiking boots and cabin sandles/ booties (Xtra Tuff’s are the preferred Southeast AK footwear, while Chacos or Tevas are great as cabin wear)
• gaiters
• backpack
• backpack cover
• sleeping pad
• sleeping Bag
• 2 Waterbottles, either Nalgene or equivalent or water bladder
• toiletries—include what you need… lip balm, ibuprofen, etc.
  
• bowl or large mug to eat out of
• mug for tea and coffee
• two spoons
• Leatherman or equivalent multi-purpose tool
• headlamp or flashlight
  

Taking up oars

In his 1939 monograph, The Philosophy of Literary Form, Kenneth Burke posited the metaphor of the parlor as a means to understand what he calls the "unending conversations" of life. I quote the famous passage here, as I think it provides an apt metaphor for our own moment in this semester-long engagement with ecocriticism:

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. (110-111)

Indeed, as we prepare to put in our oars before departing this unending conversation, my hope is that we're able to retrace some of the steps that came before, establishing both that we've caught the tenor of the argument and that we are able to align ourselves with some of the key positions. More importantly, though, I hope that we might add to to vigorous-ness of the conversation before the hour grows too late.

Buell's third installment in his trilogy of books on ecocriticism should help us with both of these obviously related projects, as his rhetorical goals are twofold--he wants to sum up and capture the tenure of the conversation that came before and, as his title suggests, he also wants to gesture toward parts of the conversation yet to come.

So: what do you make of Buell's summing up and his prognosticating?

Don't forget, also, to bring your precis to class. I won't forget, this week, to ask for your very informal 30-second to 8-minute presentation of your project. In addition to our usual conversations, we'll also do some outing preparations. So bring your planning hats, too.

Until Wednesday,

kevin

Le Passage des frontieres: From Nature/Culture to Human/Animal?

Per Forest's request, we'll stop worrying the nature/culture split this week, moving on to a potentially more fundamental split between humans and animals.   This will require, of course, returning to our understanding of the nature/culture split (sorry, Forest).  

Our goal for this week and next--and in the writing of our seminar papers--will be to explore the frontiers of ecocriticism.  Where, from your perspective, do they lie?  Might posthumanism be the way of the future for ecocritics?   

More immediately, and potentially more importantly, what's the deal with Derrida's cat?   (FYI:  it took me the better part of a day to wade through Derrida's essay, so budget your time accordingly).  

Also, don't forgot to prepare your 1-8 minute presentation of your seminar paper--and now would be a good time to start working on your annotated bibliography, too.  

until Wednesday,

kevin

 

parsing the eco in ecocriticism: what are we to do with science?

Greetings from the wrong end of spring break,

Our task this week, before turning (in)to animals, is to figure out what science has to do with ecocriticism.   Should be pretty simple, right?  

Please post your questions, comments, and/or laments that spring break is over under this thread.

thanks, 

kevin

PS don't forget to read Haraway's essay on situated knowledges--this is replacing the Latour selection listed on the syllabus--if you lost your copy, I can e-mail you another, just drop me a line.  

The Mimesis Wars: Buell, Phillips, and the Status of Representation

How can we theorize a theory-adverse sub-discipline of literary studies like ecocriticism?  This week, Buell and Phillips do battle over this and other questions.   As we watch the battle unfold, I hope we have some questions of our own.  Post them here, with your replies, and we'll have a conversation about them on Wednesday night before taking a much-needed week to commune with some real trees--or some representations of trees, if that's your preference.  

kevin

Spelling Place

To continue our theme of less-troping, more theorizing, we're moving ahead with a consideration of the ecology of language itself, amongst other important phenomenological and indigenous-perspective questions.  I hope you find these questions--and  this reading--as  refreshing and interesting as I do.  

For those of you missing in action last week, the assignment is to read the first 4 chapters of Abram.  Although this is about 130 pages, it's fast reading, relatively speaking.  It might be helpful, also, to read pg. 137-9 as Abram sums up his project in those first 130 pages in 3 short pages.  If you're wondering what to do with all his theorizing, you might also check out the last chapter, "Coda: Turning Inside Out."  

OUTING UPDATE: Due in part to our own deliberate hemming and hawing and in part to the slow wheels of bureaucracy, we couldn't get the Cowee Meadows cabin for our planned April 20 outing.  So we'll head to Blue Mussel instead.  Hope that's acceptable. 

until Wednesday,

kevin