These first two chapters of Sidney Dobrin and Christian Weisser’s piece were very helpful to better understand eco composition. I think the phrase that really helped solidify a basic understanding of this concept was how the authors wished to “explore the relationships between discourse and natural systems, between language and environment, and between writing end ecology” (p. 2).
I also really appreciated their starting definition.
Ecocomposition: The study of the relationships between environments and discourse. It draws primarily from the disciplines that study discourse and merges the perspectives of them with work in the disciplines that examine environment. As a result, ecocompositon attempts to provide a more holistic, encompassing framework for studies of the relationship between discourse and the environment. (P. 6) While I appreciated their definition, I am a bit critical of how they claim to show a more holistic relationship between discourse in the environment. I believe that other fields are doing this work as well, but they label it differently.
What I appreciate about eco composition is this constant circle-back to service learning and community engagement. I really appreciate this form of discourse examines the environment in a practical way. I appreciated how the authors mentioned the environment could be the classroom, political, electronic, ideological, historical, economic, or natural environments (p. 9). As a teacher, I think it is easy for us (and students) to forget that our environment encompasses these and many more environments. And, by providing a practical experience in the community, students can see how some of these environments work together or against one another.
I believe that service learning in eco composition sets itself up for ecocritism. The authors defined ecocritism as “a literary criticism that looks toward textual interpretation” and goes further to say that “eco composition works from the same place, but is concerned with textual production and the environments that affect and are affected by the production of discourse” (p. 24). This is a concept that I’m still trying to wrap my head around, but from others that I’ve read ecocritism might have to deal with how environments are portrayed and critically analyzing those contexts such as the Real Florida.
On the same lines of the Real Florida, the New Mexico True slogan is also very interesting and worth analyzing. Spencer Herrara did a presentation “Etched in Wood: Cultural Propaganda and New Mexico True” which examined this harmful slogan and how it works to disenfrenchize those most in need and benefit only tourists and the wealthy. I’ve added a screenshot below. What I appreciate about eco composition and the service-learning aspect is that by actually going into the community and learning about these places and how these systems work with one another, we can truly understand what is happening in our community, and then work toward change.
Katie Rieger, Portfolio 