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Children’s Literature as an Exercise in Ecological Thinking

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Ecocritical Perspectives on Children's Texts and Cultures

Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature ((CRACL))

Abstract

In this Goga argues that Swedish Frida Nilsson’s ecofantasy Ishavspirater (2015, The Ice Sea Pirates) can be read as an exercise in ecological thinking. The story is a first-person narrative told by Siri, a ten-year-old girl. Siri’s tale is about a series of encounters with various people, animals and creatures on a journey through a wintry archipelago. In this landscape’s topography, both Siri and those she meets adopt and negotiate different ethical positions regarding the relationship between, and values of, the various life forms. To support such a reading, the theoretical framework consists of ecocritical perspectives on the relationship between literary characters and the environment, and discussions of the need for an interspecies ethics.

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Correspondence to Nina Goga .

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Goga, N. (2018). Children’s Literature as an Exercise in Ecological Thinking. In: Goga, N., Guanio-Uluru, L., Hallås, B., Nyrnes, A. (eds) Ecocritical Perspectives on Children's Texts and Cultures. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90497-9_4

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