English CLNW. Writing the Natural World: from Creation Myths to Catastrophe

Instructor: Valeria Luiselli
TBD | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

How do we document volcanoes, whale-song, winds, tempests? How do we write with and about the “natural world” and the place that humans occupy in it, in a moment where everything seems to be changing so rapidly. And how do we reimagine beginnings in a moment when end-of-world narratives seem so predominant?

In this workshop we will be reading authors like Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Lucretius, Virgil, Hesiod, and Ovid, who documented or imagined volcanic eruptions, astronomical phenomena, tempestuous storms, fallen cities, plagues, catastrophes; but also, new beginnings. As part of our research, we will likewise be listening to recordings from my own archives, of things such as volcanic eruptions, wind storms, whale-song, and glacier rumbles.