In this reflection of my this class is that in my most of my years of academia has been an interesting and analytical struggles that it was something I have learned this year that throughout this semester is justified every time I have to to do a blog about a section in a chapter of a books, articles or poems and writing about these things have been one of the most difficult to analyzed and interpret into words to a understandable length is for myself and others.

What I have learned from this is that there is lots of mermaids that I didn’t really know about that there is much to learn about mermaids and it was a truly mythical experience that I usually don’t believe in and this class has shown me actual documentations on Mermaids.

Thank you Professor pressman for teaching me and my classmates about how Mermaids impact and how to analyze texts and writing them into blogs and essays. It was difficult but it was a skill worth learning.

Hands down, this class and the Moby Dick class (also with professor Pressman) has been my favorite classes this semester. Learning the relationship with humans and the environment and being faced with the impact that we, as humans, have had in our own space was honestly not what I was expecting from this class. At least not to this extent. However, I’m so glad we went in the direction that we did as it made this class sooo interesting. I enjoyed the reading and the class discussions.

Learning from other people from their ideas and thoughts added to the experience so much. Thank you all for making this class what it was.

I had such a wonderful experience in this class. Responding every week was a challenge, but one that pushed me to be a more consistent writer. I absolutely loved the topic of this class and felt it was so refreshing! I remember having had no idea that we would be focusing on mermaids. I was pleasantly surprised, and as much as I love analyzing the classics, or deciphering fragmented post-modern literature, I was overjoyed to look into how we as humans engaged with the environment through literature, most importantly our relationship with water and land. This is something that has helped me look at the texts I’ve studied, even in other classes, through a different angle, and ask what it’s saying about the ways we’ve been conditioned to regard our dominance over nature, and how we might be able to shift the conversation by broadening our scope for what we consider to be important. The texts we’ve covered in this class has helped us further in this direction, wether that be looking at ancient, or cultural myths, or modern stories and poems that incorporate our histories as well as a new interest in the blue humanities.

This final week we are reading Stephanie Burt’s poem, “We are Mermaids,” and I’d like to share a few lines which stuck with me and remind me to stop and take a moment:

“You don’t have to be useful. You are not required to come up with something to say”

You can spend your life benthic or brackish, subsisting and even thriving where a fingertip come back saline and still refreshing, exploring the estuary, and congeries of overlapping shores, on the green-black water, the harbor, the bay

You can live with your doubt, that’s why it’s yours

Some of us are going to be okay.”

In a moment where our culture and society ask us to produce, and keep producing or consume and keep consuming, I think it is important to stop and consider the fact we don’t have to “be useful”, that we can just be, and still be beautiful, and wonderful, and important. Our value, as people, or creatures on this earth does not hinge on the ability to maintain a persona, or consume a product, or toil endlessly in a system that excludes us.

I’ve been very lucky to share this space with all of you! Reading your discussions, and getting to hear your perspective in class has broadened my experience of the texts we’ve read together, and I’d like to thank everyone who gave me feedback and was willing to hear me out, even if I was still in the process of understanding! I hope you all have a very happy holiday season!

I had never been in this discussion based atmosphere throughout my academic career. I found it nerve wracking and indulgent because every session was filled with rich conversation from my fellow classmates and professor Pressman. My three takeaways from this class are: the patriarchy keeps trying to ruin women (even fictional ones), the ocean is a living archive, and real life context clues of when an author wrote a piece of merefolk literature will be subtly imbedded within their story (it helps connect the dots easier).
I’ve learned so many new techniques to analyze text and now images! In hindsight, this was daunting but I’m so happy to have experienced this course with my fellow classmates!

Thank you Professor Pressman for everything and being so supportive, kind and helpful!
Thank you to my fellow classmates for always having such an inviting environment with rich discussions!

Taking this with the 522 class, and the many ECL classes before it, I would say that I have learned a lot this semester. Namely, working on close-reading and critical thinking as a class was a much easier, but anxiety-inducing time than having to learn to close-read yourself, as it has given us the opportunity to hear the different ways others have approached literature and their interpretations.

I like to think of close-reading as a form of psychoanalysis, but for media. Why do you think the professor wants us to analyze a passage from a text from The Little Mermaid or The Deep? Why does she want us to close-read The Water Will Carry Us Home and Sirenomelia, even though they aren’t “texts”? Why explicate? We see the author’s creation (the manifest content), and we try to find its hidden, often larger meaning (latent content) through dissections and interpretations. We have been practicing it throughout the semester, and it has been shaping how we think about the world.

In the context of this class, we’ve learned that mermaids are so much more than just beautiful women with fish tails. They have historical significance (dating back to medieval times) and reflect our relationship with nature. Mermaid literature places us in Her eyes, allowing us to experience man’s impact and penetration through Her perspective, raise environmental/ecological awareness, and promote ecocritical thinking. Through Her, the Ocean is History, the Ocean is an archive, and the Ocean is our mother.

I am looking forward to apply what I’ve learned in this course for the next semester, where we dissect the literature of AI and how it is affecting the world in the age of AI (ECL 510B).

Looking back on this semester, this class changed how I understand both nature and literature. Before taking it, I thought of the environment as something separate from human life, something that people either protect or harm. Through the course, I came to realize that nature and humanity are deeply connected, and that the way we describe the natural world often reflects how we see ourselves or our own perspectives. Also, at first, I didn’t know much about mermaids, but through this class, I found that it was interesting how mermaids became a bridge between humans and nature. They are not just mythical creatures, but symbols of many things, such as transformation, nature, or coexistence.

I also learned that literature can shape environmental awareness. Stories are not only for entertainment but also for rethinking how we live with the environment. Also, I was able to know that studying literature is not only about interpreting texts but also about thinking critically about the world we live in.