Reading Landscapes and Environments (page 177)

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WebLinks: Contexts for Exploring Visual and Verbal Texts

At first, it may seem odd to "read" a landscape or an environment. We tend to think that nature—as opposed to culture—doesn't beg for interpretation. It's just there, we think. Still, most landscapes reflect a people's values, beliefs and prejudices, since they are designed by human beings to some extent. Therefore, in order to understand the larger significance of a landscape, we need to ask certain questions of it: who put it there? Why? What is its purpose? What elements make it distinctive?

The sites below will give you some additional pointers and practice in reading landscapes and environments.

http://www.uwec.edu/kaldjian/GEOG111/111%20Homework%20Resources/LewisAxioms.pdf
This link provides a chapter from a seminal book about reading American cultural landscapes by Pierce Lewis, Axioms for Reading a Landscape.

http://www.uwec.edu/kaldjian/GEOG111/111Spring05/111Ex3AnsFormSpring05.doc
An exercise to help you practice reading cultural landscapes by applying some of the principles Lewis discusses to your hometown. Try this: you may never think of your hometown in the same way again.

http://137.132.114.30/writing/uwc2101h/syllabus.html
This site links a syllabus of a class entirely devoted to reading landscapes. Notice how the professor emphasizes "power relationships" constructed through landscapes.

http://www2.ups.edu/faculty/dsackman/syllabi/122sp2005.htm
Another university-level course dedicated to analyzing and reading landscapes. This site also has a good bibliography on the subject.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/gmpage.html
A link to the Library of Congress' geography and maps section, where you can practice reading historical landscapes.

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