Issue Details: First known date: 2006... 2006 From Eden to Suburbia : Perspectives on the Natural World in Children's Literature
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Stephen's compares a number of children's texts, including Jeannie Baker's Window and Belonging, which focus on representations of the natural environment. Stephen's articulates three ideological perspectives which are the most common approaches to dealing with ecological issues in children's literature; the positioning of human subjectivity as outside of nature; the assumption that 'a represented landscape must include humans to perceive it and operate as a site of some kind of narrative'; and the representation of nature as 'endangered' and reliant upon human intervention and appropriate management (41). Stephens claims that overall, texts with an ecological message show a tendency to locate humans as both the cause of and solution to, ecological destruction, and texts which are seeking to actively engage with ecology issues are usually a variation of the second type (45). For Stephen's, Baker's Belonging is a 'quintessential' example of a novel which positions the perspective of humans outside of nature and as the source of value and meaning (45).

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Last amended 28 Mar 2018 14:00:17
40-45 http://www.paperschildlit.com/pdfs/Papers_2006_v16no2_p40.pdf From Eden to Suburbia : Perspectives on the Natural World in Children's Literaturesmall AustLit logo Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature
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Subjects:
  • Window Jeannie Baker , 1991 single work picture book
  • Belonging Jeannie Baker , 2004 single work picture book
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