Studies in American Literary Forms – Ecopoetry & Ecopoetics

Draft course description – subject to change

 

This course is an introduction to and eclectic survey of modern poetry addressing human relations with the more than human world in an age of planetary transformation.

We’ll read mostly poetry by American writers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, though we’ll turn back in time for a few important historical precursors. Most of the course assigned readings will be from Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street’s monumental, doorstop of an anthology, The Ecopoetry Anthology (rev. ed., 2020); we’ll supplement this with a few texts from other sources. We’ll also read selected short critical texts on the history, poetics, and practice of this vital, diverse literary genre.

Graded course requirements include four short critical close readings of poems selected by the student: two of poems we’ve discussed in class, two of poems from Fisher-Wirth and Street that we’ve not discussed in class.