EGL 222 - Gendered Ecologies in the Long-Nineteenth Century

Course Units:

This course will challenge gendered judgments and standardized principles represented in the masculinized canon of nineteenth-century nature writing and establishes a framework for women writers of the long nineteenth century, who were active contributors to the discourse of natural history. These women writers engaged in critical observations of eco-materiality, analyzed their findings, and encrypted their discoveries of nature in their literary creations. Our course readings will focus on the works of several prominent, trans-Atlantic literary women from the long-nineteenth century whose multi-directional observations of animate and inanimate objects in the environmental sphere are founded on personal discoveries made while interacting with their surroundings. The aim of this course is to reconsider the place of women as naturalist writers and to foreground the salient contributions of literary women writers to the study of eco-feminism, botany, political ecology, and bio-communal systems. Prerequisite(s): One 100-level English course or a score of 5 on the AP English Language or Literature and Composition test. CC: HUL, HUM ISP: AMS, ENS, GSWS