Teaching a Stone to Talk and Other Adventures in Writing Nature
LIT2587.01
Course Description
Summary
This a course in encounters and exhibitions that takes its cue from Annie Dillard’s essay collection Teaching a Stone to Talk. While studying the essays of Dillard, students will also be asked to walk, wander, wonder, and, of course, write. In addition to keeping a journal of silence, students will be asked to discover a place on campus to converse with nature. Through journaling and field notes, students will bring into creation a fully-formed essay that tugs at ephemerality and the lifespan of whatever comes to be, transforms, and haunts.
Learning Outcomes
- To examine various methods of recording and documentation as it applies to a notebook within a writing life;
To examine various methods of forming a writing life and practice engaged with nature;
To discover how everydayness finds news expression within literature;
To discourse on literature eloquently in both discussion and in critical papers.
Cross List
- Environment