ENGLISH 721 / Writing, Land, and Place

3 unit(s)

Cross-listed as CULTR ST 721

Different understandings of land and place are fundamental to the formation of settler colonial nations such as Canada. Whether land is seen as Creation, a commodity, a right, property, a sacred legacy, a network of interrelated life forms, geopolitical space, a “landscape,” parochial prison, or safe haven has a powerful effect on economics, aesthetics, social arrangements, spiritual practices, political formations, and, of course, ecological dynamics. This class will examine different historical and current ways of writing about land and place, attending to the ways these approaches shape our ways of living in them. It will also consider our own ways of writing about land and place.