Final Thoreau Question

Our final Thoreau question will be obvious by now. Each of you is working on a research project that focuses on an important American nature writer. Your final required blog-entry should discuss the impact that Thoreau had on your author. This impact does not have to be direct--as it is in the case of Annie Dillard--who literally quotes Thoreau and discusses his influence. You may want to describe the way your author's prose style has been influenced by HDT, or you may decide to emphasize several shared topics of concern between your author and the pilgrim of Walden Pond. Even if the relationship seems nonspecific, virtually every author who has adopted the genre of nature writing from the mid-nineteenth century to the present owes a debt to the Concord hermit named Henry David. So, to our question: what influence has Henry David Thoreau had on the author who will be the subject of your final research project? You will have the rest of the semester to reflect on this question. Length: 500 words. Due date: Friday, May 1.
(P.S. In the one or two cases where your author predates Thoreau--such a William Bartram--please answer this modified version of our question: what similarities can you find between the work of your author and Thoreau?) (3/1/2009)

Second Thoreau Question

Now that we have almost two dozen responses to the question of what stands out in Walden (see "Comments" to the question in the January 19th posting below), I would like you to consider your readings of Thoreau and his mentor, Emerson. How do you think the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau contributed to the tradition of nature writing in America? What are the specific issues, ideas, concerns, or examples provided by Thoreau and Emerson that led so many subsequent writers to see them as the originators of a new literary genre: nature writing. Some say that American concern for the environment begins with these two Transcendentalists. Others say that no one had written about humans' relations to their surroundings in this way until Emerson and Thoreau began, respectively, thinking about "Nature" and Walden. Offer us 300-400 words that help to explain the link between these two authors and "American nature writing."Due date: February 18 (2/18/09).

First Thoreau Question

As you read Walden for the first time, keep track of those ideas that seem most interesting or significant to you? Then post a comment response to this question which tells us which two or three of Thoreau's ideas are most compelling to you and why? Your response should be roughly 500 words in length. Due date: February 1, 2009 (2/1/09).

Thoreau, Wilderness, and American Writing

Using a rich combination of printed texts and hypertexts, this class at Dickinson College will seek to understand important connections between and among Henry David Thoreau, the tradition of environmental writing he began in America, and connections between that tradition and the idea(l) of wilderness. Our blog will allow us to engage a number of valuable questions that confront all students and scholars interested in the tradition of environmental literature in America, the sources of that tradition in a wider American culture, and the impact of that tradition on the current environmental movement, nationally and internationally. From the preservation of wild lands and debates about global warming, to the desire to protect certain animal species and the need to make use of our resources for the betterment of human lives and communities, we will explore the many ways that environmental writing has played a crucial role in the deployment of ideas which have helped to shape the texture of modern life in America and beyond.       --Professor Ashton Nichols