Open Collections

Kennedy, Graeme

University of British Columbia

This thesis employs an ecocritical lens combined with a theoretical framework of cultural memory studies to analyze a selection of contemporary middle grade fantasy novels: The Girl Who Drank the Moon (2016) by Kelly Barnhill, The Night Gardener (2014) by Jonathon Auxier, and The Barren Grounds (2020) by David A. Robertson, and examines the roles diegetic narrative, memory, and magic play in developing and altering the characters’ relationships to their environments. In these novels, magic symbolizes the characters’ interactions with place, and expresses the harm and healing that these interactions can bring to both place and inhabitant. This thesis argues that place, along with social groups and relationships, is the basis for individual and cultural memory, and suggests the importance of memory in forming reciprocal relationships to place. Using a cultural studies approach, this study interrogates the texts as cultural objects, exploring how characters relate to human-made spaces and more-than-human ecologies, and considers the value of analyzing these texts through an ecocritical lens with young learners. Based on the analysis of these texts, this study suggests that viewing place as a social entity is crucial to living in accordance with our environments.

Text

2023-12-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86959

Children's Literature

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/