FRS 001G — Sec. 001 — (1 unit) — CRN 53259 — T 3:10-4:30 pm — 123 Wellman
Painted Deserts: The Literature and Art of America’s National Parks

Instructor: Scott Herring, Department of English, College of Letters and Science

Description: The course is based on my book Painted Deserts, forthcoming from University of Virginia Press. Painted Deserts argues that since the very first national parks were established, writers and artists have looked at them and seen texts; they think of these often spectacular landscapes as books, paintings, sculptures, and symphonies. Having defined the parks as texts, these writers and artists then make aesthetic judgments about them, elevating the parks to form a high canon, in comparison to what they see as the less compelling, less beautiful, and therefore less canonical landscapes outside the parks. A reciprocal relationship then develops between the landscape-texts and the human response, in which the human interpreter publicizes the landscape, and the landscape provides the interpreter with a spectacular subject. This seminar will aim to accomplish several goals. It will introduce students to two classics of American nature writing, John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, as well as art and photography on the national parks. These texts will serve as a point of departure; based on them, we will begin to consider how some of the natural landscapes of North America have become texts themselves.

Format: The seminar (1 unit) will meet for one hour and fifteen minutes each week. The time will be divided between informal lectures, student presentations, and discussion of the reading. Grading: Students will be given a letter grade based on the quality of their participation and attendance (30%), their presentations (30%), and their short papers (40%).

About the Instructor: Scott Herring is a Faculty Fellow in the English Department at UC Davis, where he completed his Ph.D. in 2001. He is an expert on nature writing; he has focused on the national parks, and recently completed two books on the subject. His literary criticism has appeared in Contemporary Literature and MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.