Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

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ENAM0227A-F11

Nature, Culture, Poetry

Encounters With the Wild: Nature, Culture, Poetry (Pre 1800)
Civilization is often defined against wilderness. The two ideas are not exclusive but mutually constitutive, for wilderness and the wild turn out to be central to notions of the civil and the civilized. Poets have long been preoccupied by the boundaries and connections between these ideas. The word "poetry" itself comes from a Greek word for "craft" or "shaping"; thus, poetry implies the shaping of natural elements into an artful whole. In this course we will examine the literary history of this ongoing dialectic by reading and discussing masterpieces of Western literature, from ancient epics to modern poetry and folklore. As we do so we will rethink the craft of poetry, and the role of the poet, in mapping the wild. Readings will include Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, sections of The Bible and Ovid's Metamorphoses, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, and poems by Wyatt, Marlowe, Jonson, Donne, Marvell, Pope, and Thompson. (This course counts toward the ENVS Literature focus and the ENVS Environmental Non-Fiction Focus) lect./disc.
Course Reference Number (CRN):
92673
Subject Code:
ENAM
Course Number:
0227
Section Identifier:
A

Course

ENAM 0227

All Sections in Fall 2011

Fall 2011

ENAM0227A-F11 Lecture (Brayton)