THE LEARNING CURVE Winter/Spring 2010
Art History, Archaeology, Astronomy, History, Literature, Philosophy, Music

Landscape and Nature Poetry

Most civilizations have produced literature through which language ties humans to physical environments. Some try to influence nature through words - beckoning hunted animals or coaxing rain, for example.  Some reveal deep appreciation for environments through sophisticated poetic structures.  Still others, particularly today, show concern over the state of the natural world. Examine five different civilizations as they set about this poetic work, focusing on what poet Robinson Jeffers thought was the “sole business of poetry”:

To feel and speak the astonishing beauty of things---
Earth and stone and water,
Beast, man and woman, sun, moon and stars.

Week 1:  The course will begin with traditional Inuit poetry of Greenland.  Long, cold nights, a prizing of individual talent, and a hunting culture produced a body of poetry to be read or sung in common lodges, with people chiming in as a chorus.
Week 2: Next we will turn to T’ang dynasty poetry from China, inspired by Taoism and the Chinese landscape.  Often these poems were produced in concert with paintings—some of which we shall examine-- and are haunted by vivid imagery.
Week 3: In part inspired by Chinese poetry, in part by Zen Buddhism, the third group of poets we will address will be the haiku writers of the golden age of haiku poetry in Japan-- Buson, Basho, and Issa. 
Week 4: We will make a radical switch to western culture and discuss British romantic and Victorian writers, Wordsworth and Coleridge in particular.
Week 5: The course will end with a look at contemporary nature poets, with its main focus on Mary Oliver.

When: Fridays, Feb 26 – Apr 2, 1:00–3:00pm
(No class Mar 19)
Where: The Windmill Inn, 4250 N. Campbell Ave.
Cost: $115 (5 sessions - includes reading packet)

Instructor: Barbara T. Gates is Alumni Distinguished Professor of English and Women’s Studies Emerita at the University of Delaware.  She is author of Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories (Princeton, 1988), which can be found on the Victorian Web at http:www.victorian web.org/books/suicide/contents.html, Kindred Nature: Victorian and Edwardian Women Embrace the Living World (Chicago, 1998), and numerous essays and reviews.  Her edited works include Critical Essays on Charlotte Brontë (G. K. Hall, 1990), the Journal of Emily Shore (Virginia, 1991; electronic edition, UVA, Rotunda Press, 2006), Natural Eloquence: Women Reinscribe Science, ed. with Ann B. Shteir (Wisconsin, 1997), an anthology of nature writing, In Nature’s Name (Chicago, 2002), and editions of Victorian science writers Arabella Buckley (Thoemmes, 2003) and Eliza Brightwen (Thoemmes, 2004).  In 2000, Professor Gates was named Distinguished Senior Scholar of the Year by the AAUW.  Proficient in adult education, she has received numerous awards for her teaching, among them a Carnegie Foundation Award for best teacher of the year (1995) and a Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Professor Gates has also served as consultant in teaching and academic service for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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