Environmental Studies 349: Regional Literatures of Place: The West and the South

The literatures of both the American West and the American South often reflect political struggles. Issues of federalism and states’ rights, economic dependency on the land, the rapid and radical transformation of an indigenous economy and ecology, and the stain of history stand in the foreground. This seminar will examine literary regionalism by focusing on southern and western writers whose works emanate from and reinforce the ethic and spirit of place. Several of the “Southern Agrarians” may be included along with William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor. Western writers may include Bernard DeVoto, Wallace Stegner, Cormac McCarthy, and James Welch. In addition, films may be used to illustrate the peculiar burden of the contemporary western writer. Offered in alternate years.