Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 Introduction : Storying Plants—Roots and Winged Seeds
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This introduction situates the representation of plants in Australian children’s and young adult literature in relation to Indigenous Australian stories of and relationships with plants, and the field of critical plant studies. The first section discusses the notion of “storying plants,” grounded in Palyku writers Gladys Idjirrimoonya Milroy and Jill Milroy’s call to tell the “right” stories about trees. It then introduces the field of critical plant studies, reviews previous forays into the intersection between children’s and young adult literature and critical plant studies, and provides a historical overview of plant representation in Australian children’s and young adult literature, from colonial and postcolonial engagement and dislocation to recent Indigenous publications drawing on ancient relationships to Country and to plants. The subtitle, “Roots and Winged Seeds,” alludes to the ways in which plants, and the stories of plants, are at once anchored in the ground and travel widely. Thus, while considerations of Australia and its plants form the core of the book, it also includes transnational perspectives, including that of Aotearoa New Zealand, Ukraine, and Poland. The editors hope these contributions to plant studies and children’s and young adult literature act as winged seeds, flying across the world to take root.'  (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Storying Plants in Australian Children's and Young Adult Literature : Roots and Winged Seeds Melanie Duckworth (editor), Annika Herb (editor), Cham : Palgrave Macmillan , 2023 27274711 2023 anthology criticism

    'Storying Plants in Australian Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Roots and Winged Seeds explores cultural and historical aspects of the representation of plants in Australian children’s and young adult literature, encompassing colonial, postcolonial, and Indigenous perspectives. While plants tend to be backgrounded as of less narrative interest than animals and humans, this book, in conversation with the field of critical plant studies, approaches them as living beings worthy of attention. Australia is home to over 20,000 species of native plants – from pungent Eucalypts to twisting mangroves, from tiny orchids to spiky, silvery spinifex. Indigenous Australians have lived with, relied upon, and cultivated these plants for many thousands of years. When European explorers and colonists first invaded Australia, unfamiliar species of plants captured their imagination. Vulnerable to bushfires, climate change, and introduced species, plants continue to occupy fraught but vital places in Australian ecologies, texts, and cultures. Discussing writers from Ambelin Kwaymullina and Aunty Joy Murphy to May Gibbs and Ethel Turner, and embracing transnational perspectives from Ukraine, Poland, and Aotearoa New Zealand, Storying Plants addresses the stories told about plants but also the stories that plants themselves tell, engaging with the wide-ranging significance of plants in Australian children’s and Young Adult literature.'  (Publication summary)


     
    Cham : Palgrave Macmillan , 2023
    pg. 1–29
Last amended 13 Dec 2023 13:59:05
1–29 Introduction : Storying Plants—Roots and Winged Seedssmall AustLit logo
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