This seminar explores the human connection to the environment and the evolution of American attitudes toward the natural world as reflected in environmental literature. Understanding our connection to the world through the use of language enables us to examine our relationship with nature in various works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and film. In addition to exploring environmental literature and film, students attend environmental events on campus and write about their experience. By fostering a greater appreciation for our connection to the environment and attempting to reconcile our ambivalent attitudes toward nature, this seminar helps us define our place in the natural world.

Texts may include:

• Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire,
• Diane Ackerman’s The Moon by Whale Light,
• Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac,
• Ellen Meloy’s Eating Stone,
• Scott Momaday’s The Man Made of Words,
• Jack Turner’s The Abstract Wild.

Films may include: “Garbage Warrior,” “Waterbusters,” and “Trinkets and Beads.”

Contact Virginia Murphy with any questions: vemu@umich.edu