Environmental Studies 235: The Pastoral, the Wild, and the Commons

As Aldo Leopold plainly stated in A Sand County Almanac, Western societies, from antiquity to the present, have grappled with human-land relations.  Recently, the American conservation and environmental movements have intensified these struggles in various efforts to designate public lands, conserve green space, protect family agriculture, and preserve wilderness, wildlife and scenic areas.  In this course, we will examine various texts that bring life to life three concepts that lie at the foundations of most conservationist and preservationist action: the pastoral, the wild, and the commons.  Theoretical texts by Leo Marx, Rousseau, Lewis Hyde, Roderick Nash, William Cronon and Kathryn Newfont will form cornerstones of the course.  Literary readings may include works by Theocritus, Virgil, Gilbert White, Wordsworth, Frost, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Hurston, Marilynne Robinson, Fitzgerald, and Wendell Berry.