COML 4697

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - December 15, 2024 7:33PM EST
  • Course Catalog - December 15, 2024 7:07PM EST

COML 4697
Is Nature Silent?

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Thoreau, in 1841: "Nature is always silent and unpretending as at the break of day." He had just contrasted the robin's song with "the bustle and impatience of man." Why could silence contain birdsong but not human noise? This course explores the idea and representation of nature's silence—as a positive ideal; as soundlessness; as wordlessness; and as extinction. Heeding the environmental criticism that interrogates the contrast between silent "Nature" and noisy humanity, we will remain curious about what compels us in accounts of nature's multivalent silence. Concurrently, we will examine writings that attend to natural sound. Investigating silence, we will also strive to better understand what we mean, and what could be meant, by nature.

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

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Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: COML 6697, SHUM 4697, SHUM 6697

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 21309 COML 4697   SEM 101

  • Instruction Mode: In Person

    Instructor Consent Required (Add)