Historical Overview of Environmental Literature 🌎 Flashcards

1
Q

List these these three historical movements in chronological:
Romantic, Transcendentalist, Enlightenment

A

Enlightenment, Romantic, Transcendentalist

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1
Q

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

A

utopia

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2
Q

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?

A

dystopia

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3
Q

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?

A

utopia

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4
Q

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?

A

dystopia

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5
Q

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?

A

Romantic movement

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6
Q

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.

A

rationalism

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7
Q

Why was poetry so important during the Romantic movement? Why was it appreciated?

A
  • 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
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8
Q

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?

A

Romantic movement

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9
Q

Where did the Transcendentalist movement originate?

A

New England in the United States

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10
Q

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?

A

Transcendentalist movement

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11
Q

What is Unitarianism?

A

German transcendentalists who had earlier influenced the English Romantics, Plato’s philosophies, and mysticism

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12
Q

Where did the Romantic movement originate?

A

England

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13
Q

What is the concept of “Over-Soul”?

A

the idea that all souls are linked to one another and that individuals contain he divine inside themselves

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14
Q

What Transcendentalist writer wrote about the concept of the Over-Soul?

A

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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15
Q

What were the three main influences of American Transcendentalism?

A
  1. Unitarianism (German transcendentalists)
  2. Idea of divine “Over-Soul” present in each person
  3. Asian belief systems (especially Indian religions–influenced from works in Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Sufism)
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16
Q

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?

A

Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson

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17
Q

What is the idea of self-reliance?

A

idea that individuals should trust their intention over conforming to social standards

18
Q

What was the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first published essay that espoused his belief that man and nature were infinitely linked and that the divine could be found in nature?

A

“Nature” (1836)

19
Q

What are the names of the two pieces of writing that Henry David Thoreau is best known for?

A
  1. his treatise on simple living, “Walden” (1854)
  2. his essay on “Civil Disobedience” (1849)
20
Q

Who was known for being a naturalist and advocate for the National Parks system?

A

John Muir

21
Q

Who was known for being a famed conservationist and author of the important essay “The Land Ethic” (1949)?

A

Aldo Leopold

22
Q

List some values/things that John Muir advocated for and pursued throughout his career?

A
  • lobbied for the establishment of Yosemite National Park, and other national parks
  • wrote articles about the damage done by domesticated livestock
  • wrote about national parks, spanning more than ten volumes of nature writing
  • encouraged people to view nature and the parks as sacred spaces for spiritual nourishment
23
Q

How were Aldo Leopold’s views on the natural environment different than John Muir’s?

A

He also believed that nature was of spiritual value, but he also acknowledged the land as a resource: aggrieved at the pace and content of conservation education, disparaged the national focus on economic motives for conserving the landscape, found it insufficient

24
Q

What concept did Aldo Leopold introduce in which he advocated for soil, water, plants, and animals?

A

Land Pyramid

25
Q

What instrumental environmental science book written by Rachel Carson signified an era of environmental awakening in American literature and society?

A

“Silent Spring” (1962)

26
Q

Who wrote “Silent Spring”, which was an instrumental environmental science book that signified an era of environmental awakening in American literature and society?

A

Rachel Carson

27
Q

On what environmental issue was Rachel Carson, author of “Silent Spring” especially concerned about?

A

the dangers of the chemical DDT (threats to human biology)

28
Q

What were Barbara Kingslover’s ecological narratives centered on?

A

environmental destruction and effects on rural Americans
*emphasis on rural Americans

29
Q

Nnedi Okorafor is a self-identified Najiamerican author who wrote what novel that was set in modern-day Lagos, Nigeria and looks at climate change as a phenomenon through the perspective of people living in a large, bustling city?

A

“Lagoon” (2014)

30
Q

The environmental justice movement took hold in the 1980s with the formation of what organizational group?

A

Northeast Community Action Group (NECAG)
- they were a coalition of local residents fighting against placing a landfill within 1,500 feet of a local public school in Warren County, North Carolina

31
Q

What year was the National Park system established?

A

1916

32
Q

From what larger (human rights) movement did the environmental justice movement stem from?

A

Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

33
Q

The environmental justice movement was started by individuals, primarily _____________, who sought to address the inequity of environmental protection in their communities.

A

people of color

34
Q

What was the effect of the rise of the environmental justice movement on ecological literature?

A

Literature began to reflect the environmental movement’s period shift toward ecological justice beyond simple awareness

simple awareness –> ecological justice, asking ethical questions about human activities’ effect on natural systems

35
Q

Who was Vandana Shiva?

A
  • an Indian writer who is a part of the anti-GMO movement
  • physicist, ecologist, and environmental author, her nonfiction works center around the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food systems
  • argues against the privatization of natural resources
36
Q

How did Vandana Shiva’s writing help shape global perspectives?

A
  • shifted perspectives on Indian women farmers
  • critiqued Green Movement
  • critiqued idea of biopiracy (companies can patent seeds, in effect owning them as intellectual property)
37
Q

Who coined the term “Cli-Fi” in 2008, referring to climate fiction?

A

journalist and climate activist Dan Bloom

38
Q

What is climate fiction or Cli-Fi?

A

genre typically set in the future and concerned with the Earth’s changing climate
- modern Cli-Fi concerned with the intersections among capitalism, income inequality, food production, water rights, and other interrelated issues surrounded key concepts in global climate change

39
Q

What is petroculture?

A

teaching climate change in humanities disciplines

40
Q

Who is the author of the 1992 novel “Parable of the Sower” which depicted what might happen if no one came to the environment’s defense, resulting in extreme inflation, rampant Californian wildfires, pollution, etc.?

A

Octavia E. Butler

41
Q

Who was Stephanie LeMenager, and what did her work focus on?

A
  • teaches courses with the goal of helping students think through what climate change means and how to respond to it
  • writes about petroculture and environmental literary criticism
42
Q

What did Amitav Ghosh’s work focus on?

A

primarily a novelist, and also literary criticism: encouraged writers to make climate a central theme in fiction so that society can imagine better ways to meet is challenges

43
Q

What is the Solarpunk genre?

A

climate fiction that inspires hope