Landscape and Imagination

In this course we will explore how individuals and communities imbue landscapes with meaning. Texts will include Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places, Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, as well as selected Romantic poetry and Occitan revivalist song. We will examine the following themes: conceptualizations of nature informed by historical events such as industrialization, the central role of landscapes in oral histories, and the re-imagining of geographic spaces in efforts to revitalize local languages on the verge of extinction. Students will submit weekly critical response essays, creative writing assignments, and one final paper.



Sarah Trouslard is an ethnomusicologist and musician. Her scholarship focuses on music and postcolonial regionalism in southern France.