Ryan Restifo

Dr. Holt

English 12: The Bard

March 15, 2019

Project Proposal

Introduction

The purpose of this project is to understand how literature and visual stimuli

compliment each other. Famous nature poets such as John Muir or Henry David

Thoreau use several literary devices to simulate the emotional reaction of being present

in nature. Ideally, there will be an experiment performed to supplement some of the

research. In this experiment, readers will be asked to complete a survey outlining their

emotional reaction in several categories. There will be three groups in the experiment.

Group 1 will consist of readers who will read a poem and submit their reaction. Group 2

will read the same poem, however they will be presented several photos/silent videos of

the landscapes being described. The last group will be given only the photos/videos.

Background

I love nature. Ever since day one, I’ve always loved spending time in nature

hiking, backpacking, and mountain biking. I’ve also always had an emotional connection

with nature: a feeling of happiness and groundedness. Despite the fact that I am not an

avid reader, when I read something related to nature, it has an immediate effect on me. I
want to drop everything and go outside. Knowing my emotional connection to nature, I

wanted to find out how it affects other people, and how literature might compliment it.

Context

The most important voice is that of reader/test subject. As I am collecting data to draw

my own conclusions, the most important voices in my project are those of the test

subjects.

Internal Experts and Resources

Gotta figure that out…

External Experts and Resources

- Writer’s Relief Staff

- I am in contact with a member of the Writer's Relief Staff. This is a website

where unknown authors can submit their work to be viewed. The staff’s

job is to review and rate the works submitted. These people are incredibly

helpful in my research as they know what details to look for.

- Dr. Michael Scimeca (psychiatrist)

- Dr. Michael Scimeca is a psychiatrist I contacted for this project based on

his many years of experience and also happens to be a nature writer

himself.
Timeline

3/28 Thesis + outline due

3/20 Bibliography due

4/4 Written draft due

4/18 Artifact pitch (nature study form)

5/3 Put everything in the portfolio website

5/10 Website reflection due

5/13-17 Symposium

5/20 Overall reflection due

Annotated Bibliography

“Beauty in Nature.” ​Sustainability at Harvard,​ 23 Apr. 2014,

green.harvard.edu/news/beauty-nature.
 Why is nature beautiful? What kind of emotional reaction do humans have

to nature? These are the questions this article is attempting to answer. It

explains many of Emerson's ideas. He believes nature is beautiful because it’s

alive. He also said “He should know that the landscape has beauty for his eye,

because it expresses a thought which is to him good: and this, because of the

same power which sees through his eyes, is seen in that spectacle.”

Understanding how humans view and “feel” about nature is important to

differentiating between a conceptually based reaction and a sight based

reaction.

Johnsen, Svein Åge Kjøs, and Leif W. Rydstedt. “Active Use of the Natural

Environment for Emotion Regulation.” ​Europe's Journal of Psychology,​

ejop.psychopen.eu/article/view/633/html.

This is a scientific study where some participants were asked to only use a

picture of nature in their everyday life as their exposure to nature. It was found

that happier people looked at the picture more. This led the study to conclude

that personality and mood had a connection with an individual's desire for

exposure to nature. This study captures the essence of my project: how nature

induces a positive emotional reaction in people.

“Measuring Emotions.” ​Explorable,​ explorable.com/measuring-emotions.

 This source is a good starting place to learn about how people have

attempted to measure emotions. Although it is a short article, it has links to

many emotional reaction tests and other sources to help me figure out the

most effective and reliable way to judge a person's emotions without having to

see and talk to them myself.

“Nature Poetry: From A Poet's Glossary.” ​Poets.org,​ Academy of American Poets, 27

June 2016, www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/nature-poetry-poets-glossary.

The natural world has been a focus in literature since its start. Many

writers throughout history have described nature and its inhabitants. This

article explains several nature writers and how their view dictated their

description. For this project, it’s incredibly important to understand how these

writers describe certain aspects of nature without sounding analytical.

“What Are Basic Emotions?” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201601/what-are-basic-emoti

ons.

This article outlines the general emotions and emotional triggers we have.

The article talks in parts about how ecological changes can induce an

emotional reaction. It also talks about just how abstract studying emotions

are, and attempts to categorize them into building blocks in which more

complex emotions are built upon. A large portion of my project is to gauge a

person's emotional reaction to stimuli. This article gives some insight into

what to look for while “measuring” emotions.