GREEN CONSCIOUSNESS/REVERENCE FOR LIFE
Professor Jane Caputi, Women’s
Studies,
Boca Raton,
FL 33431
jcaputi@fau.edu
We
need harmony, we need peace. Peace is
based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life. Not only do we have to respect the lives of
human beings, but we have to respect the lives of animals, vegetables, and
minerals. A rock can be destroyed. The Earth also.
Thich Nhat
Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
In
numerous venues, apocalyptic events, images, and narratives preoccupy
consciousness: scientific warnings about global warming, species extinction,
and pollution; religious visions predicting the end of the world; globalization
leading to a unprecedented gap between the minority wealthy and the majority
impoverished; genocidal campaigns; a popular culture steeped in eroticized
violence; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and a
seeming state of permanent war; and a perceived increase in alienation, cynicism
and a sense of powerlessness among ordinary people. In response, a variety of thinkers and
artists, literary and visual, urge an expansion beyond short-term vision and
memory, resulting in an alternative consciousness, one we might think of as
“green consciousness,” a modern consciousness, albeit one with ancient and
global roots, reverencing the interconnectedness, diversity and inherent value
of all forms of life and one that recognizes and respects the exigencies of
nature. This class introduces the
exploration of this attitude of reverence for life as communicated in diverse
venues: spiritual writings, nature writings, political theory, philosophy, and literature
and the literary essay.
Film:
Life and Debt (Stephanie
Black, 2001) “Utilizing
excerpts from the award-winning non-fiction text "A Small Place" by
Jamaica Kincaid, Life & Debt is a woven tapestry of sequences
focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival
and parameters of day-to-day existence are determined by the U.S. and other
foreign economic agendas. By combining traditional documentary telling with a
stylized narrative framework, the complexity of international lending,
structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context
of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact”(http://www.lifeanddebt.org/credits.html.)
Assignments:
Take-home essay
exams (40% each). Scrapbook Assignment
(20%): For this assignment, please
gather 4 examples from the news or image media that in some way relate to the
themes of this class (e.g., news items, print advertisements, clips from films
or TV shows, song lyrics, fiction, a comic book). For each item, provide at least one
typewritten page, double-spaced text where you analyze this text or image,
using theoretical and critical perspectives from the readings, class lectures,
and discussions. Look for political, cultural, and symbolic meanings,
recognizing that often these messages are multidimensional, complex and
sometimes even paradoxical. Make sure
you choose entries that are manifestly distinct from one another and allow you
to discuss different aspects of the class materials.
Abram, David. 1996. The
spell of the sensuous.
Adams, Carol J. 1997. "’Mad
cow’ disease and the animal industrial complex: An ecofeminist analysis.” Organization
and Environment 10, no. 1: 26-51.
Ani, Marimba. Yurugu:
An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/
La Frontera.
Bauman,
Zygmont. Modernity and
the Holocaust.
Brennan, Teresa, Globalization and its Terrors.
Brison, Susan J. "Torture, or "Good Old
American Pornography"." The Chronicle Review/ The
Chronicle of Higher Education
Caputi,
Jane. Gossips, Gorgons, and Crones:
The Fates of the Earth.
Caputi, Jane. “On the lap of
necessity: A mythic interpretation of Teresa Brennan's energetics philosophy.” Hypatia:
A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 16, no. 2: 1-26, 2001.
Caputi, Jane, “The Pornography of Everyday Life,” Goddesses
and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power, and Popular Culture. University of
Wisconsin/Popular Press, 2004, pp. 74-116.
Caputi, Jane. “Dirt,” Encyclopedia of Religion
and Nature. Ed. Bron Taylor: Continuum, 2004.
Caputi, Jane, "Sexuality,
Religion and Nature." Encyclopedia
of Religion and Nature. Ed. Bron Taylor: Continuum, 2004.
Carson,
Rachel, “To Understand Biology,” and “Preface to Animal Machines,” in Lost
Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, ed. Linda Lear.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought:
Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd ed.
Cronon, William, ed. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the
de la
Huerta, Christian. Coming out Spiritually: The Next
Step.
Dworkin,
Andrea. Scapegoat: The Jews,
The
Earth Charter, Earth Charter Campaign
Gottlieb,
Roger. S., Ed. This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment, 2nd
edition.
Grossman, Dave, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of
Learning to Kill in War and Society.
Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of Understanding.
___ Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in
Everyday Life.
Hogan, Linda. Dwellings:
A Spiritual History of the Living World.
Keller,
Evelyn Fox. Reflections on Gender and Science.
LaDuke, Winona. "A
Society Based on Conquest Cannot Be Sustained: Native Peoples and the
Environmental Crisis." Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of
Environmental Justice. Eds. Richard Hofrichter and Michel
Gelobter.
Lerner, Gerda. Why History
Matters: Life and Thought.
Maiese, Michelle, “What It Means
to Dehumanize,” http://www.intractableconflict.org/m/dehumanization.jsp
Marshall, Lucinda. "The Connection between Militarism and Violence against
Women." Rain and Thunder: A Radical Feminist Journal of
Discussion and Activism Spring 2004: 5-7.
See also http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein.
"Ours Is Not a Dead Universe." Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the
Search for Meaning 29.2 (2004): 6-13.
Shiva, Vandana. Biopiracy:
The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge.
Shiva, Vandana. Water wars: privatization, pollution and
profit.
Spiegel, Marjorie. The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal
Slavery
Walker,
First
Section Key
Concepts: Binary Thinking as the basis of war. Domination confused with power; creation of
the scapegoated and dehumanized “other,” patriarchal values and war.
Caputi, Jane, “The Pornography
of Everyday Life.”
Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 69-96
Thich Nhat Han, Peace is every Step (entire book)
Gerda Lerner, Why History Matters, pp. 3-17, 93-211
Brison, "Torture”
Grossman, On Killing
Maiese, Michelle, “What It Means to Dehumanize,” http://www.intractableconflict.org/m/dehumanization.jsp
Dworkin, Scapegoat
Section Two: Reverence for Life as Expressed in Nature
Read:
Abram, pp. 225-260; This Sacred Earth, pp. 51-508
Spiegel, The
Dreaded Comparison
Hogan,
Dwellings.
Section Three: Environmental Justice and Globalization
This Sacred
Earth, pp.
563-744
LaDuke,
“A Society . .. “
Brennan,
Globalization
Shiva, Water
Wars
Film: Life and Debt
Section 4: Alternative Consciousnesses: New Theories of Consciousness, Nature, Sexuality, and the Sacred
de la
Huerta, Coming Out Spiritually
Bagemihl, B. (1999). Biological Exuberance: Animal
Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.
Caputi, “Sexuality,” and “Dirt.”
Caputi, Gossips, Gorgons, and Crones
The Earth Charter
Anzaldúa, 88-113
Nasr, "Ours Is Not a Dead
Universe."
Section 5: The Convergence of class themes
in two novels by Octavia Butler: Parable
of the Sower and Parable of the Talents
(Butler’s
vision of a future United States (2024-2090) is grounded in past and present
realities: the legacy of enslavement of Africans, including the systemic raping
of women and men; the forcible reeducation of Native American children; global
warming; northern migration by people fleeing poverty and political repression;
the political domination of the religious right; the vast and growing chasm
between rich and poor; worldwide sex trafficking and enslavement of women and
children; and the current flourishing of new and alternative communities and
spiritualities. The story concerns the
founding of a new religion by an 18-year old African American woman, Earthseed,
based upon a concept of God as Change.