Ecocritical readings of contemporary Norwegian coming-of-age stories

Project summary

In the thesis of my PhD-studies, I examine ideas of childhood and nature in a selection of contemporary Norwegian literature for children and young adults.

Key perspectives are drawn from an ecocritical framework to discuss the different cultural constructions of nature that are present in the texts. The study examines how the texts constitute certain literary natural constructions, i.e. nature as a landscape of transcendental wilderness or as an idyllic pastoral, and how the character’s engagement with these landscapes shape the coming-of-age themes of the stories.