ENGL132A – Ecology of the Text

Assignment for Paper #1: Critical Analysis of Literary Texts

Due:                            in my office (338 Wyatt), Friday, Feb 4

Length:                       5-6 pages, plus Works Cited

Special

   Requirements:        ● identify an environmental issue

● build essay upon an arguable thesis

● include a Works Cited Section

(see handout on “Using Quotations,” the back of our anthology Literature and Environment, or the Bedford or MLA Handbooks)

● use only two primary text

   (no outside research for this first paper)

● present original ideas

    (don’t waste space repeating what’s already been said in class)

For your first formal paper, I’d like you to identify an environmental issue in any two texts that we’ve read this far this semester (up to and including the day the paper is due) which you think bears profitably upon discussion of the environment you’ve chosen.

For example, if you are writing about Point Defiance Park, you might decide that your issue is the humanly mediated environment and that Kingsolver’s “The Memory Place” and Lopez’ “The Mappist” best invoke this concept.  If you’ve chosen Mt. Rainier or some other locale that leads you to take definitions of “wildness/wilderness” as your issue, then the pieces by Kerouac, London, and Muir would be a useful group from which to chose your two texts.

Here are some other ideas for topics, though you are also welcome to come up with your own.

● the role of preservation, both public and private

● pollution and toxic discourse

● the role of differing genres (e.g. poetry, fiction, the personal

         essay, etc.) in representing nature

● nature as a site of introspection/reflection

● the sublime

After you submit this paper, I’ll return it with written comments.  You’ll then be asked to revise the paper substantially and submit it the following Friday (Feb 13, again by noon) for a final grade.  Your grade for this assignment will take into account both the first version of the paper and the final product, so please devote ample effort to the first draft.

I’ll be glad to meet with you during office hours or by appointment to answer any questions you may have.  You may also contact me by email.

The Writing Center (Howarth Hall 109; tel.  x3395) is also a resource for you to consider during the drafting and revision processes.