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