In French, this expression, which would more likely be written “litteraterre” without the –s, means “litter on the ground/earth.” I chose this name for our course blog because I want us to purse this “Introduction to Literature” as a re-introduction from a new perspective. Let us proceed, not from a position of accepting the value and estimation of literature, but from a position that asks from the start whether literature is really something more than just human-generated ink-stains on the processed carcasses of trees, something more than litter on the earth.
“Litter-a-terre” also invokes images of environment, ecology, and waste: in short, the world we, and our books, inhabit, and many of the texts we’ll be reading are engaged with ecological concerns and crises from a range of viewpoints and a range of literary genres, styles, and techniques. In particular, we will work with intersections of literature, ecology, science, technology, culture, and society with an openness to rethinking what it means to be human and how we conceptualize human relationships to things like machines, animals, and waste too.
Giving this particular shape to our course is meant to invite you into literature through questions and concerns that are relevant and pressing and that your work as students and later in life will directly shape. Finally, I hope that when our ten weeks are finished, I will have taught you, not what to think of literature, but what are the fundamental tools and approaches to thinking about literature and how to use them to make your own compelling and cogent interpretations.
Welcome to Litter-a-terre!
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