Hello Dear 382 Lit&EnviroII students,
I'd like you to share your thoughts about Literature and Environement studies you committed to study this semester. As you may guess from the title of this page, I'd like to learn, why do you study environmental literature and what do you expect to get/learn from this topic and how were your environmental values shaped? I'm looking forward to read your comments!!
Cheers,
The main reason why I choose this class is that emotional experiments about my childhood.I grow up in the village with my grandparents and lived together cats, dogs, cows, and olive trees.Even now,when I experiment special places like forest or see and when I visit my village every time I fell peaceful with nature and animals.I expect from this class to get rid of the stress of country life. I want to talk about woods or oceans like images which we can see in the movie "Into the Wild" This two hour time can be an exist for us to move away this unhealthy, polluted, depressing athmosphere.
ReplyDeleteRaziye Bayagut
As a person who grew up in a big city, I yearn for a life surrounded by animals and nature. I have always dreamt of a big farm house and with all kinds of animals that I can spend my time with. However, because I am still unable to get away from the big walls of shopping malls and tall apartment buildings, literary texts in which descriptions of nature come to life gives me a glimpse of my "ideal life". Also, because I volunteer in an animal shelter in Seferihisar, I am closely involved with the hardships animals have to face everyday. Therefore I am hoping that this course will give me a whole other perspective on environmental issues and new ways we can help to better our environment.
ReplyDeleteIt is an ever-growing fact that environmental contents are becoming significant day by day.For the simple reason that, modern mentality,which is also called as global mindset, has made orientation of the determinative object budged over the last years of the 17th century. That is to say, with Industrial Revolution and modernity idea, anthropocentric view has been setting the agenda of social disciplines, including literature, in recent years. However, there is an another proposal of the determinative object: ecocentric view. Is there a possibility that we can evaluate the human behaviour towards Earth in our rapidly globalizing world? Which approach should we follow an Earth-oriented or a human-oriented perspective? In the hope that, I aim to put out of center through the lens of environmental literature during the semester.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why I chose to study this course is that I want to learn more about the nature I love in terms of literature and to be able to read literature from ecocritic's point of view. I grew up in a big city, yet i have always noticed the 'hidden' nature from among the civilization; it was both the great trees behind the buildings and the grass between the paving stones. I am really glad to have the chance to study a subject that has a great importance in my life.
ReplyDeleteI was a scout in primary and secondary school.Since then,I have tried to explore the therapeutic effects of nature on human development.I have always had a keen interest in giant forests and animals.Every time when I move away from the society and its restrictions,I feel more alive.I believe that when we are able to have some interactions with turtles,fish,sharks etc. we will be much more integrated with nature and feel better than we ever have before.We do not even speak the same language but they will understand us,they will teach us to respect them and everything that surrounds us.Furthermore, they give us to the message of nature,clearly.Briefly,I believe that my awareness will expand and I will comprehend the relationship between humanbeings and environment through literature throughout this course.I know that "when the last tree has been cut down,the last fish caught,the last river poisoned only then we realize that one cannot eat money".Maybe there is still hope for us.Who knows?
ReplyDeleteDuygu Durna
It is important to realize that literature is all about us and the world (nature or environment whatever you call it) we live in. Criticizing, understanding or commenting on some literary works requires a knowledge, different points of view and perspectives. Even before criticizing a simple work, it is essential to understand and form an opinion about it. And I think, to be able to do all these things we- especially me- need to get to discover nature around us. I assume that most of us only hear of basic features of nature, not much of it. I am, as a university student want to go far beyond that while I have still had a chance to do it. Thus, I am hoping that after I attend this course, I will be able to look at from a different angle to what I read, watch and write about the environment.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason why I decided to study Literature and Environment this semester is ,probably, to help myself expressing -frankly- my gratitude to nature as one part of it. As we did in first semester, I felt that this course and materials we discussed helped me to recognize where I am, who I am and the things that I had to rationalize as a single, tiny part of this gorgeous cycle. The hate seeds –upon the consumer society, unconscious individuals that I plant were becoming unbearable to me and I realized I had to overcome those feelings then put them into the explainable grounds. At this point, books such as Walden and Desert Solitaire –we studied at first semester- were like the individuals that carry the same feelings with me.
ReplyDeleteThe merciless invasion of modernization and late-capitalism on nature and the loss of our natural contact with our environment are the main topics which I eagerly want to study this semester or the main frames that I will shape this course on my head. As a person who lived in small which is placed between the sea and forest, nature is more important than so many living people, for me. It is the main source which adds a meaning to my life; because of the fact that the nature is working like a mirror –for me-, when I stare at the mountains –covered with mainly hazel trees- and listen to sentences of waves which contains some feelings that only a few of us can translate, there I can only breathe and have a chance to see the meaninglessness or worthlessness of the worries or of our rush that is burdened upon us. With the hope of seeing the ecocentric balance between the human race and goddess nature, I enjoy participating in this course because of the fact that even though being witness to the silent murder of our cultural environment and nourishing nature, being aware of this siege triggers me to do something for it and triggers me to wake others, with all due my respect, I can say that I am not shutting my eyes -at least-.
Wriggle yourself out of your hypocrisy and find yourself and help others to do it: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/isengard-the-conservative-pillage-of-anatolia#/
Even when i was a kid, my favourite game was digging the soil, the cover that lifts us all. This activity was of course more than a game for me. It was like exploring Earth and myself with tiny grubs of a boy to the ground. I always respected the land because it is capable of carry and shelter everything. Nature is of course more than the land. I think sky is the most sublime thing one can ever see with his or her eyes. It expands our mind and soul with it's every colour, pattern and object. One can feel tiny while looking at the sky as it is enormous, but it also can make you feel colossal because when you look at the sky the only thing that you see is sky and it makes you feel unified with it. Our ancestors admired "Eternal Blue Sky" it was their god and i personally love this belief. Nature is everything but we feel seperated from it because of the settled, stressful life style in cities, we should more live a nomadic life in nature to understand it. My reason to choose this course is to "Know Myself and Study Nature". As a student of Literature, i felt a deep need of doing that. So i choose this course to study and learn more about nature, us.
ReplyDeleteFikret Kemal Yenisöz
I prefer to choose literature and environment class in order to understand and observe other people’s thoughts and to learn about nature issues more. It must be a bit complicated but today, human conditions are changing day by day and this change also affects the natural and environmental area. Indeed, last semester’s topics and books were helpful and attractive in terms of environmental deformation from past to present, some authors’ perspectives from different times such as Thoreau and Abbey and also some environmental obligations. I am taking this class for the second time because it has a standing topics which interest all living beings. Actually, i realized that awareness is something must. Since we spoke and comment on some environmental events in class, i have started to think and aware more. This class gives me a point of view therefore; interesting and current events or issues are more attractive to put them into action. The other thing that i like about the class is the places. Different events in different places make it more appealing otherwise it could be boring to be only forest or only somewhere else. These kind of topics are worth to think about and comment on.
ReplyDeleteI think this course is the closest one to our daily lives. The things we discuss in the classroom actually are the most relatable issues that we can experience firsthand. Human beings are also part of nature, however either they forget it in their hectic lives or just neglect this fact. I want to tell you a little incident I encountered the other day. As you know lots of shops have started to charge a fee for their shopping bags to help protect the nature. I happen to hear a conversation between two women at a shop while waiting on line which I wish I hadn’t because it almost drove me crazy. One of them was complaining how this shop has started to take a fee for shopping bags and she was claiming that they do it just for money. I don’t understand how that little fee is too much in their eyes, while they spend so much more. I guess some people will never change, they only think about their own benefit in all kinds of situations like the people who was trying to get dying whales’ teeth in the essay we read in class. Anyway even though sadly I’m not so much hopeful about the world’s future, I want to do what I can. I chose this course to gain a little more hope by realizing that there are people out there that still care and to learn more about the mysteries of nature. Of course the planned nature walk is another factor :)
ReplyDeleteMy father and mother grew up in a small town where they could be very close to nature. When they moved to big city, they had such a hard time getting used to it. As I grew up, we visited our town very frequently and I always felt that a part of me wants to be in a harmony with nature. I loved walking on a road covered by a lot of trees by smelling the fresh air and eating the fruits and vegetables as they grew ripe. These kinds of facts made me want to choose this class. When we start studying environmental narratives, I know that I will feel a lot closer to my childhood memories and I will satisfy my will of being close to nature.
ReplyDeleteBefore I chose this course I looke at the environment around me in a way that was not beneficial to neither of us. I would see the nature around me as a property, and I thought just because I was a human being, I had a birthright for the Earth we live in. That my wellbeing and pleasure was the single most important thing in the world. Until the year 2005, I lived in İzmir and saw nothing of value in the countryside. Then, we moved to Muğla and seeing the small city life and going to villages really felt different but my mind was not change until I chose this course. Reading Thoreau, Leopold and Abbey, and seeing their opinions on nature caused a great change within me and I am now treating the nature as we all should not a property but our lifeline.
ReplyDeleteUnlike my many other friends I've born and grew up in a big city, and I've never been able to observe the nature. Many people were saying that our world is facing serious environmental challenges like pollution or climate changes, and I was not even able to identify a maple tree. This situation bothered me because deep inside I knew that mankind relies on nature to maintain their existence. Living in a manufactured world does not mean that we are not part of nature anymore. I believe that it is impossible for someone to value nature without learning about it and by taking this class, I aim to gain a better understanding of the world around me.
ReplyDeleteMy aim to have this class was to examine ecocritical approaches and how ecoritics take ecological issues into consideration in literary works in which I had a chance to read some of in a class, Contemporary Critical Theory.
ReplyDeleteMy environmental values are based on the idea that man is a part of nature which symbolizes the all universe not only earth so I believe one reality that is nature, itself. However, this reality has been tried to evolve in every day according to conditions of capitalism and its needs so man unknowingly or knowingly prepares his own extinction due to exploitation of earth and it seems he also spreads his mentality of exploitation to other planets in future when earth would become a place having a no life. Man’s endless ego and ambition seem certain and pertinaciously have carried out their ways so far with a craving hunger that is the main reason of the consumption, exploitation and destruction of earth and of himself, too.
I’ve been experiencing busy city life for my whole life and I’ve realized that sometimes I can easily forget to pay attention to nature or living-cycle around me. I chose to study environmental studies because I wanted to experience being in places I am too afraid to go by the help of books which are written in ecocentric perspective. Along with this learning more about culture and nature relationship caught my attention. One of the biggest reasons for me to choose this class was the desire of getting rid of anthropocentric point of view that is imposed on us by the society in which we live. Even though they do not want to accept it, I think most of the humanbeings share this common view that says everything is made for them in the world. I’m eager to learn and look at the bigger picture and I believe that this class will help me. I want to have a deeper idea about nature that we are a part of by getting new perspectives.
ReplyDeleteIt is very important to perceive and understand the world around us. Thanks to this course, I believe that I will travel to the different parts of the world through the novels we read. I feel like a part of nature when the wind blows, the waves move and the leaves fall. The reason why I believe that humans are a part of nature depends on my childhood. When I was little, my parents and I went to the village in which my grandparents lived. I met nature there, I watered trees, flowers, helped my grandmother to seed and I sensed that nature had a soul itself as we humans had. I understood that we could exist together and we were connected to one another. So, I thought that this course could help me to feel the same way through the novels we read.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason why I chose this class is to understand how nature and literature combine together and see how will the readings affect my view. I believe that instead of being optional, this course should be one of the necessary ones because obviously people today, including me, see ourselves apart from environment and nature. As university students who call ourselves 'intellectual' we cannot be complete without the knowledge of being one with the nature. Each one of us should learn to treat our surroundings better and teach it to everyone we can achieve. Me, I am a person who finds peace with beauty of the nature and nature gives it for free so why destroy it instead of embrace it... I am trully happy that each person in the class will have the same thoughts as me but I would hope to reach more people.
ReplyDeleteI choose this class because my father raised me as a nature lover. Since I was siz years old we are going mountans, secret nature places, unkonwn beauties of our country. I love being in the middle of green and blue. Nature makes me more fresh and happy. So I love being in nature and I am doing my best in order to preserve it. And I thought that I need some help in this way. I believe that this course gives me a new point of view about nature. It shows us whole differnt ways that we did not notice before. As a nature lover I can say that this course makes me more thoughtful about nature and all creature living in that.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why I’m interested in taking the class of Literature and Environment is that the world is becoming more crowded, more consuming, and more connected day by day. Growing population and higher standards of living put increasing pressure on our natural environment. Such environmental problems and their solutions typically are associated with social, political, literary and economic aspects which we must be aware of and it is only by understanding how our nature works that we can begin to solve some of our past, current and potential future problems. This is why the desire for the study of environmental issues is so important for me.
ReplyDeleteWe ara surrendered by the Nature. It is very important to know that human is not in the center of it. Thanks to that course, I learned many artists who are interested in environment. I believe their aim is to make people aware of the problems of nature. Transferring those informations through literature is more effective than direct telling. Because of those reasons, I wanted to choose that course.
ReplyDeleteMerve Akgül
Environment is the shelter of living and non-living creatures and humanbeing takes the center as nothing cannot interrupt.People use, consume and even exploit the nature but it is not able to prevent any potential and likely danger. I chose Literature and Environment class as it deals with the inferior state of surroundings.There exists a globally indifferent approach of humankind towards nature and people ignore what the nature experiences afterwards human activities. Even a small effect of humanbeing results in catastrophic events that shake all lives. This class provides an awareness about what we don't see about nature. For example, marine life or the creatures in danger of extinction are forgotten by most of us. This class helps the target group think about the murder of humanbeing for the sake of high buildings, high standards of living and desire for more and more.
ReplyDelete