Historical Overview of Environmental Literature 🌎 Flashcards
List these these three historical movements in chronological:
Romantic, Transcendentalist, Enlightenment
Enlightenment, Romantic, Transcendentalist
What is the word to describe an imagined place or state where everything is perceived to be perfect, including social and economic conditions?
hint: this is one of two key features of environmental literature
utopia
What is the word to describe a society in which there is great suffering and injustice especially in relation to how people are treated by others and by their governments?
dystopia
Consider these example texts: “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells, “Ecotopia: The Notebooks” by Ernest Callanbach, “Pacific Edge” by Kim Stanley Robinson, “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Psalm for the Wild-Build” by Becky Chambers.
Are these examples of utopian environmental literature or dystopian environmental literature?
utopia
Consider these example texts: “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Philip K. Dick, “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi, “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemison, “The Marrow Thieves” by Cherrie Dimaline, and “A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Are these examples of utopian environmental literature or dystopian environmental literature?
dystopia
What historical movement in literature occurred during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the midst of and in response to a period of change and upheaval in England, continental Europe, and the Americas?
Romantic movement
During the Romantic movement, many writers were responding to the _____________ of the previous century’s Enlightenment and looking for a more spiritually healing way of being in the world.
rationalism
Why was poetry so important during the Romantic movement? Why was it appreciated?
- believed that poetry could elevate the human soul and inspire people toward a more just and beautiful world
- poets highlighted social injustices in their poetry, attempted to give voice to those marginalized by society
- made to be accessible to all people, rather than written in elitist and highbrow terms
In what historical movement in literature did writers and artists prioritize imagination and found the natural world to be a vast beacon of freedom, stress the importance of individual freedom, and advocate for aiding humankind?
Romantic movement
Where did the Transcendentalist movement originate?
New England in the United States
In what literary movement during the 19th century did writers emphasize alternative ways of living, advocated for women’s right to vote, better conditions for workers, individual freedom, and other humanitarian causes?
Transcendentalist movement
What is Unitarianism?
German transcendentalists who had earlier influenced the English Romantics, Plato’s philosophies, and mysticism
Where did the Romantic movement originate?
England
What is the concept of “Over-Soul”?
the idea that all souls are linked to one another and that individuals contain he divine inside themselves
What Transcendentalist writer wrote about the concept of the Over-Soul?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What were the three main influences of American Transcendentalism?
- Unitarianism (German transcendentalists)
- Idea of divine “Over-Soul” present in each person
- Asian belief systems (especially Indian religions–influenced from works in Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Sufism)
Who were two of the most renowned Transcendentalists who were great friends, members of the same literary movement, and were abolitionists who believed in self-reliance and the relationship between soul and nature?
Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson