While ecocriticism and environmental writing as a distinct literary genre developed in the late twentieth century, natural and built environments have long fascinated and inspired English and American writers.

In this course, we will first consider how numerous influential British authors turned to nature to express their thoughts on religion, imagination, and social order. Readings from Ben Johnson, Andrew Marvell, John Gray and William Wordsworth will be enlivened by visits to parks and formal gardens in Bath, and walks along the nearby Kennet and Avon Canal. We will then cross the Atlantic to see how nature writing was cultivated in the ‘New World’, considering transcendental perspectives on the natural world in Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. We will analyse how race and gender inform our perceptions of nature, with readings from Shelton Johnson and Terry Tempest Williams. To conclude, we will return to England to explore the impact of climate change and the burgeoning sub-genre of ‘cli-fi’, including in John Lanchester’s The Wall. 

Throughout the course, students will write literary analyses and keep a Nature Journal, using our readings to reflect on the natural environment of Bath and consider urgent issues at the heart of twentieth-century environmental activism.

An overnight retreat to Sherwood Forest, home to the legend of Robin Hood, will allow us to experience another ancient and uniquely inspiring natural environment, and reflect as a class on important themes found throughout nature writing.

Professor: Michael Marx, Associate Professor of English, Skidmore College, NY. Email mmarx@skidmore.edu