Central questions
What follows are some questions to guide your weekly reading as well as your blog posts. These questions are not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather as places to start if you are confused by a text or are unsure what to write about.
* What kinds of environments or landscapes are depicted or imagined in this text?
* What are the text’s attitudes towards these environments or landscapes? What values does the text attach to these environments or landscapes?
* What does this text say (or imply) that the environment “should” be like? How can you tell?
* How are humans and culture linked to the environment in this text?
* Does this text suggest a certain kind of politics or action regarding the environment? Does it have an ethical motivation? If so, what?
* In what ways is this an “environmental” text? Obviously there is the simple matter of nature as a theme, but what other aspects of the text—the subject matter, the main concerns of the author, the style of the prose—make it readily identifiable as “environmental”? In what ways does it fulfill Buell’s checklist for an environmental text?
* What kinds of environmental and nature are of interest in the text? How does the author define these terms (explicitly or implicitly), and how useful are these definitions? What kinds of landscapes (wild, agricultural, toxic, restored, urban, suburban, garden, etc.) are important, and how? What are the text’s attitudes toward these landscapes? How does the text depict the relationship between people and landscape?
* What historical event(s) are depicted in this narrative, and how are they described? What seems to be the author’s attitude toward these events? Are parts of this historical context missing?
* Many of these texts deal with environmental and ecological issues. How are these issues depicted in the text? From whose perspective are they described? Are there any perspectives missing? How would you describe the text’s environmental politics?
* How is gender, ethnicity, race, class, etc. represented in this text? Do the characters and/or situations in this narrative seem to reinforce traditional roles, or do they challenge these such roles?
* How would you characterize the author’s prose or poetic style? Are the sentences or lines long or short? Does the author use relatively straightforward sentence construction, or are there many subordinate clauses? What effect does the author’s style have on the reader, and how might style be related to subject matter?
* Does the text comment upon the nature of storytelling itself? What does the text have to say on this subject?
* In what ways does it seem to you that this story is unique to its geographical setting? In what ways does this story strike you as universal?
* What kinds of environmental and nature are of interest in the text? How does the author define these terms (explicitly or implicitly), and how useful are these definitions? What kinds of landscapes (wild, agricultural, toxic, restored, urban, suburban, garden, etc.) are important, and how? What are the text’s attitudes toward these landscapes? How does the text depict the relationship between people and landscape?
* What historical event(s) are depicted in this narrative, and how are they described? What seems to be the author’s attitude toward these events? Are parts of this historical context missing?
* Many of these texts deal with environmental and ecological issues. How are these issues depicted in the text? From whose perspective are they described? Are there any perspectives missing? How would you describe the text’s environmental politics?
* How is gender, ethnicity, race, class, etc. represented in this text? Do the characters and/or situations in this narrative seem to reinforce traditional roles, or do they challenge these such roles?
* How would you characterize the author’s prose or poetic style? Are the sentences or lines long or short? Does the author use relatively straightforward sentence construction, or are there many subordinate clauses? What effect does the author’s style have on the reader, and how might style be related to subject matter?
* Does the text comment upon the nature of storytelling itself? What does the text have to say on this subject?
* In what ways does it seem to you that this story is unique to its geographical setting? In what ways does this story strike you as universal?