Lecture Handout

Lecture 1: Intro to the Environmental Humanities Ecocriticism:

1. Why approach environmental issues from a literary perspective?

2. Why do we read and study literature at all?

Content

1. What is Environmental Criticism?
   1. Environmental Criticism is methodologically smilier to other forms of cultural criticism.
   2. Environmental critics are similarly interested in representations of nature and the natural world as they change over time.
   3. These representations not only reflect but also shape culture
      1. “feedback loop.”
   4. Understanding U.S. attitudes toward the environment requires studying its long literary history.
2. About this course
   1. The course mostly look into how Western ideas about environment developed over time
   2. not to celebrate them, but to understand their global impact, both good and destructive side.
3. What Do Environmental Critics Explore?
   1. Ecocritics analyze how all forms of art — from poems to pop songs— express cultural attitudes toward the environment and consumption, revealing that such attitudes are culturally constructed, not innate.

One of the example is the “Niagara” by Gustave Dorè, reflects 19th-century Romanticism, portraying nature as sublime and sacred, showing how art constructs environmental meaning.

1. Why Approach Environmental Issues from a Literary Perspective?

A literary approach offers unique insight into how cultural and historical ideas about the environment developed, complementing scientific and philosophical methods.

1. Why Do We Read and Study Literature

We read to understand ourselves, our culture, and history; literature reveals how human values and worldviews are shaped over time.