The aim of the present study is to investigate how three coursebooks used in upper secondary school in Sweden portray nature and promote agency to enact the environmental perspective as outlined by Skolverket (2022). The data for this study was obtained through a close reading of the coursebooks, and the criteria for selecting data were that the texts should touch upon subjects related to nature, sustainability and the environment. The research method employed was qualitative discourse analysis. The data was analyzed within the theoretical framework of ecocriticism as well as some concepts from climate psychology. When examining the data, it was found that nature was portrayed in mainly an anthropocentric way, but also as metaphysical one. Furthermore, the findings suggest that there is an emphasis on individual rather than collective responsibility when promoting agency to act in favor of the environment. This emphasis could potentially promote climate anxiety rather than encourage engagement and, therefore, it could ultimately undermine the environmental perspective. In conclusion, the findings suggest that there is a risk of failing the environmental perspective as stipulated by Skolverket (2022). Ultimately, this study suggests further research be carried out in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to explore the effects of promoting environmental engagement among students.

In this thesis called “Soon there was nowhere to go”, I investigate how relations between environments, landscapes and emotions are shaped in Birgitta Lillpers’ novel Om du fick tänka dig ett hem (If you could think of a home) (2010). I do this by looking at how landscapes are expressed in the novel and how the human bodies who live in this landscapes answers to their surroundings. The landscapes in the novel are exploited and fragmented, destroyed by production. But they are also landscapes full of traces, of different temporalities and connections. Through Volmar Frank, the main protagonist, other ways of relating to the land are made visible, in a sensual way, a way built on his longing for an inclusive relation to his surroundings. Here I also point to the difficulties with a relation built on closeness, because, as Lillpers shows, this could also be the moment where destruction begins, with the human gaze and how it values different lives. The exploited landscapes where loss is inscribed awaken strong feelings of hopelessness and grief within the characters of the novel. This comes from living with the knowledge of an continuous, ongoing loss around them, but also from the painful awakening, a changing gaze from which one cannot return. I investigate grief and the possibility to express this grief, both in a social context and on an individual level. In the thesis I have shown the difficulties that come with ecological grief, both in the acknowledgement of a grief that reaches beyond the human, and in relation to the absence of rituals when it comes to grieving the more-than-human. I also bring up the temporal problems with a loss that is ongoing. Here I problematize norms around what and who is recognized as grievable and how a process of mourning is expected to unfold. Lillpers gives no answers in her novel, neither solutions nor alternative worlds, but she raises important questions about what we do to our environments and to non-human lives. She leaves us with the question of what kind of world we can imagine, if we could think of a home? She also leaves openings to other ways of approaching the world, approaches built on reciprocity. I conclude that grief and the process of mourning could be a place to begin, a starting point for a transformative process, which I argue is necessary to access the problems we face today with destroyed environments and species vanishing at an escalating pace, with consequences for all life on earth. / I denna uppsats undersöker jag känslomässiga svar på människans exploatering av miljöer och landskap i Birgitta Lillpers roman Om du fick tänka dig ett hem (2010). Detta gör jag genom att titta på hur möten och relationer mellan kroppar och landskap gestaltas utifrån en affektiv ekokritik som förstår plats som avgörande när det kommer till hur känslor formas. Romanens karaktärer rör sig i ett trasigt, sårigt och fragmenterat landskap, där det knappt längre existerar platser som inte förstörts av människan. Här pågår liv, styrda av produktionens logik, byggda på narrativ om exploatering som nödvändig för meningsfullhet och social välfärd. Den som inte accepterar dessa narrativ, som känner sorg över förlusten, har ingenstans att ta vägen med sina känslor. Makten sitter i rum långt borta och hör inte de röster som försöker nå in med sina förtvivlade skrik. Vi lever idag i en tid när miljöer förstörs och arter dör ut med en allt högre hastighet. Trots att vi vet att vi behöver ändra vårt sätt att leva händer väldigt lite i praktiken. Den här uppsatsen är ett inlägg i ett samtal om hur vi kan hitta andra sätt att förhålla oss till vår omvärld. Detta gör jag med utgångspunkt i en sorg över det som förvinner och med frågor kring var det är möjligt att ta vägen, både känslomässigt och platsmässigt i en alltmer exploaterad värld. I uppsatsen lyfter jag hur sorg som riktar sig mot det icke-mänskliga möter problem eftersom den inte erkänns som legitim, men också svårigheten med att sörja en förlust som pågår utan synligt slut. Samtidigt kan vår förmåga att sörja det mer-än-mänskliga vara en avgörande aspekt när det kommer till ett annat sätt att närma oss vår omvärld. Lillpers ger i romanen inga egentliga svar, men hon visar på svårigheten att navigera i detta sorgens landskap, och synliggör frågor vi måste ställa om hur vi brukar och förbrukar vår värld. Hon visar även på öppningar mot andra sätt att närma sig omvärlden som bygger på sinnliga möten och en längtan efter mer ömsesidiga relationer med landskap och med icke-mänskligt liv.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur barns agens framställs i barnböcker som behandlar miljö- och klimatfrågor. Materialet i studien består av fyra finska bilderböcker för barn som behandlar teman kring miljömedvetenhet och klimatförändring. Studien syftar till att undersöka vilka former av agens som kan observeras i de analyserade verken och hur de gestaltas genom text och bild. Jag analyserar relationen mellan barnet och naturen som de fyra bilderböckerna förmedlar och undersöker om barnet i dem ses som en aktiv miljöaktör som har en skyldighet att agera för att bekämpa klimatförändringarna. Jag diskuterar även maktrelationerna mellan barn och vuxna och hur miljöansvaret är fördelat mellan dem. Som det teoretiska ramverket använder jag ett ekokritiskt perspektiv och tar stöd i teorier om barnlitteratur och bilderboksforskning. Jag knyter även an till forskning som diskuterar barnlitteraturens fostrande funktion och maktförhållanden samt till begreppen ekologisk läskunnighet och agens. Som analysmetod tillämpas närläsning. Utifrån analysen kan olika former av agens identifieras i de analyserade verken, varav en agens som betonar individuella val framstår som den mest centrala. I böckerna betonas individens ansvar för att lösa miljöproblemen, även om kollektiv agens och upplevelser av gemenskap skulle kunna bidra till att minska klimatångest och ansvarsbörda och ge en bredare bild av miljöarbetet. När det individuella ansvaret blir centralt, betonas också det lokala sammanhanget, vilket gör att de globala effekterna av klimatförändringen ignoreras. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how children's agency is portrayed in children's books dealing with the environment and climate change. The study material consists of four Finnish picture books for children that deal with the themes of environmental awareness and climate change. This study does not aim to define all forms of environmental agency but to investigate which forms of agency can be found in the analyzed works and how they are portrayed in text and image. I examine the relationship between the child and nature that the picture books convey and analyze whether the child is seen as an active environmental actor who has an obligation to act to fight the climate change or not. I also discuss the power relations between children and adults and how environmental responsibility is divided between them.  As the theoretical framework, I use an ecocritical perspective and lean on theories of children's literature and picture book studies. I also address research that discusses the educational function and power relations found in children's literature, as well as the concepts of ecological literacy and agency. As the analysis method I use close reading. Based on the analysis, different forms of agency can be identified in the analyzed works, of which an agency that emphasizes individual choices appears to be the most central. The books emphasize the individual's responsibility for solving environmental problems, even though collective agency and community experiences could contribute to reducing climate anxiety and the burden of responsibility and give a broader picture of environmental work. When individual responsibility becomes central, the local context is emphasized, the wider, global effects of climate change are ignored.

This paper discusses the metamorphosis in Ingvild Lothe's poetry collection Hvorfor er jeg så trist når jeg er så søt (2016). To investigate the relationship between human and nature Stacy Alaimo's term "trans-corporeality" is being used. In this paper, an analysis is being made of the poetry collection and the book cover regarding these matters. The poetry analysis is split into four sections, following the stages of the butterfly's metamorphosis. When analyzing the book cover, it is mostly viewed as an adaptation of the poems. The findings of this study suggests that there are three different types of metamorphoses in the poems and on the book cover. These are biological, symbolical and psychological. It is also found that the metamorphosis on the book cover is being more positively depicted than in the poetry collection.

In this essay, I analyze Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita from an ecocritical perspective. I try as far as possible to ignore the pedophile theme and instead focus on the thematic environment: nature, places and language. I then discuss this with Greg Garrard's Ecocriticism, Timothy Morton's ecocritical theories and Leo Marx's The machine in the garden, among others. I come to the conclusion that the pedophile theme is depicted against the American pastoral, which is also used as a rhetorical tool by the novel's main character and narrator. / I den här uppsatsen analyserar jag Vladimir Nabokovs roman Lolita ur ett ekokritiskt perspektiv. Jag försöker så långt som möjligt bortse från det pedofila temat och i stället riktas mitt fokus på den tematiska omgivningen: naturen, platserna och språket. Detta diskuterar jag sedan med hjälp av bland annat Greg Garrards Ecocriticism, Timothy Mortons ekokritiska teorier samt Leo Marxs The machine in the garden. Jag kommer fram till att det pedofila temat skildras mot den amerikanska pastoralen, vilken också används som retoriskt redskap av romanens huvudkaraktär och berättare.

1 online resource (181 leaves) / This study relies on ecocriticism as the discipline benefitting the analysis of the imagery of nature in Konstantin Paustovsky’s prose. The objective of this approach is to demonstrate that Paustovsky’s prose goes beyond of what was expected from a Soviet writer by the socialist realist dogma. This thesis attempts to prove that an ecocritical approach validates his prose as being universal in its message and thus relevant to contemporary readers. Scholars of ecocriticism ask the following questions when analysing a nature-orientated prose: what values are expressed in nature-orientated literature, does the portrayal of nature reflects the cultural values of a nation as well as the way in which a person’s interaction with his natural environment enhances or hampers his spiritual development. The timeframe, within which Paustovsky wrote his prose, should be taken into account, because it coincides with the Lenin and Stalin regimes, when any criticism of the government including its nature conservation policies was impossible. The analysis of attitudes of the Russian people towards nature in Paustovksy’prose demonstrates that it evolved from the acceptance of the official stand to the one of criticism. This research resulted in the following conclusions: Firstly Paustovsky’s view with regard to ecological problems and his solutions to these problems are on par with those of modern ecologists. The writer, for example, proposes a holistic way to undertake nature conservation, such as replacing ruined forests by the same type of trees, not interfering in the cycles of nature and stresses the importance of scientific information on how to care of the natural environment. Secondly, it is through his presentation of nature that the author familiarises the reader with the essence of the Russian culture, which is totally intertwined with the manifestations of Russian nature, such as folklore, superstitions, cultural traditions and values attached to certain animals and trees Thirdly, it has been established that the ‘external’ natural landscape of a person namely his environment, undoubtedly influences his ‘internal landscape’, his psyche. This implies that the natural environment of a person will have an influence on his psychological make-up. It is assumed that this study, in particular the use of ecocriticism as a tool to analyse literature where nature plays a role, will shed new light on the role of nature in Russian prose. This is especially the case with regard to the way in which ecological issues such as nature conservation are treated. / Classics & World Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Russian)

This thesis considers a selection of modern landscape poetry from an ecocritical perspective, arguing that this poetry demonstrates how the term landscape might be re-imagined in relation to contemporary environmental concerns. Each chapter discusses poetic responses to a different kind of landscape: gardens, forests, rivers and islands. Chapter One explores how, in the poetry of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Dunn, Louise Glück and David Harsent, gardens are culturally constructed landscapes in which ideas of self, society and environment are contemplated; I ask whether gardening provides a positive example of how people might interact with the natural world. My second chapter demonstrates that for Sorley MacLean, W.S. Merwin, Susan Stewart and Kathleen Jamie, forests are sites of memory and sustainable ‘dwelling', but that deforestation threatens both the ecology and the culture of these landscapes. Chapter Three compares river poems by Ted Hughes and Alice Oswald, considering their differing approaches to river sources, mystical immersion in nature, water pollution and poetic experimentation; I discuss how in W.S. Graham's poetry the sea provides a complex image of the phenomenal world similar to Oswald's river. The final chapter examines the extent to which islands in poetry are pastoral landscapes and environmental utopias, looking in particular at poems by Dunn, Robin Robertson, Iain Crichton Smith and Jen Hadfield. I reflect upon the potential for island poetry to embrace narratives of globalisation as well as localism, and situate the work of George Mackay Brown and Robert Alan Jamieson within this context. I engage with a range of ecocritical positions in my readings of these poets and argue that the linguistic creativity, formal inventiveness and self-reflexivity of poetry constitute a distinctive contribution to contemporary understandings of landscape and the environment.

1 online resource (181 leaves) / This study relies on ecocriticism as the discipline benefitting the analysis of the imagery of nature in Konstantin Paustovsky’s prose. The objective of this approach is to demonstrate that Paustovsky’s prose goes beyond of what was expected from a Soviet writer by the socialist realist dogma. This thesis attempts to prove that an ecocritical approach validates his prose as being universal in its message and thus relevant to contemporary readers. Scholars of ecocriticism ask the following questions when analysing a nature-orientated prose: what values are expressed in nature-orientated literature, does the portrayal of nature reflects the cultural values of a nation as well as the way in which a person’s interaction with his natural environment enhances or hampers his spiritual development. The timeframe, within which Paustovsky wrote his prose, should be taken into account, because it coincides with the Lenin and Stalin regimes, when any criticism of the government including its nature conservation policies was impossible. The analysis of attitudes of the Russian people towards nature in Paustovksy’prose demonstrates that it evolved from the acceptance of the official stand to the one of criticism. This research resulted in the following conclusions: Firstly Paustovsky’s view with regard to ecological problems and his solutions to these problems are on par with those of modern ecologists. The writer, for example, proposes a holistic way to undertake nature conservation, such as replacing ruined forests by the same type of trees, not interfering in the cycles of nature and stresses the importance of scientific information on how to care of the natural environment. Secondly, it is through his presentation of nature that the author familiarises the reader with the essence of the Russian culture, which is totally intertwined with the manifestations of Russian nature, such as folklore, superstitions, cultural traditions and values attached to certain animals and trees Thirdly, it has been established that the ‘external’ natural landscape of a person namely his environment, undoubtedly influences his ‘internal landscape’, his psyche. This implies that the natural environment of a person will have an influence on his psychological make-up. It is assumed that this study, in particular the use of ecocriticism as a tool to analyse literature where nature plays a role, will shed new light on the role of nature in Russian prose. This is especially the case with regard to the way in which ecological issues such as nature conservation are treated. / Classics and World Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Russian)

Abstract : The work that follows analyses the environmental, cultural, economic and rhetorical methods of conceptualizing violence affecting traditional Niger-Deltan and pan-Indigenous peoples. Whispering in Shadows by Jeanette Armstrong and Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary represent how Okanagan and other pan-Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Niger Deltans experience contemporary forms of slow genocide as a result of environmental pollution and various forms of displacement from ancestral spaces. This analysis of both texts brings to the fore the Indigenous sense of life, well-being, and progress that is grounded in a holistic view of communal life on traditional lands, and places it in contrast with the non-traditional use of traditional lands, as well as the exploitation of Okanagan and Nigerian Indigenous peoples produced by the dominant socio-economic realities controlled by the forces of globalization. Indigenous environmentalism reflected by Armstrong’s and Agary’s novels views human relationships with the land in terms of an interconnected familial dependence, and not within extreme notions of romanticized abstinence from dependence on land or of capitalist exploitative use of land. In the light of the environmental criticism of Yellow-Yellow and Whispering in Shadows, I propose that both texts may be read as eco-literature. However the ecocritical work of both novels is based, not on Western-identified notions of ecocriticism that often prioritize the non-human through what Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin describe as “anti-human” environmentalism. Rather, the novels adopt an Indigenous view of humans and non-humans not as competing subjects, but as interdependent and interrelated parts of one entity: the land. Agary’s and Armstrong’s renderings of displacement disrupt dominant utilitarian perceptions of the land by showing that it carries meaning and identity that encompasses culture, social, personal and communal existence. I suggest that a reaffirmation of culturally-grounded relations with the land, a reconnection to land and rebuilding of localized networks between Individuals in eco-devastated communities and between such communities in a form of globalization-from-below provides a strong base for healing, for cultural preservation, and for creative collaborative responses and solutions to globalization. Global minority collaboration and cultural affirmation ultimately has potentials of destabilizing and resisting globalization in sustainable ways. They insulate communities from the hegemony of the dominant Western socio-cultural models. The close familial ties between Indigenous peoples and the land, coupled with historic, cultural and economic meaning of land to such communities suggest that the loss of traditional land under systems of globalization is a traumatizing and devastating experience for traditional peoples. I argue that such cultural and physical dislocation normalizes a trend of infighting and social instability, which becomes a self-reproducing violence that exacerbates the process of slow genocide: “the emotional and physical harm done to survivors of violence over time that leads to extreme hardship and premature death for many” (Cottam, Huseby, and Lutze 2). At the heart of Armstrong’s and Agary’s texts are critiques of both environmental and social injustices that emanate from industrial activities on Indigenous traditional lands. The environmental representations of Armstrong and Agary portray Indigenous perspectives that link environmentalism to the cultural, economic and social facets of sustainability. The pan-Indigenous and African environmentalisms represented in Whispering in Shadows and in Yellow-Yellow respectively do not define “environmental concerns” and issues of justice in terms of separate issues that need linking. Rather, they represent the issues of equity, justice, and environmental, spiritual and cultural stability as a one and the same interrelated issue of sustainability. / Résumé : Ce qui suit analyse des dispositifs environnementaux, culturels, économiques et rhétoriques qui engendrent le déplacement chez les peuples traditionnels autochtones et du Delta de Niger. Whispering in Shadows de Jeannette Armstrong et Yellow-Yellow de Kaine Agary représentent, de manière similaire, la façon dont les peuples traditionnels autochtones et ceux du Delta de Niger expérimentent les formes contemporaines du génocide lent sous forme de pollution environnementale, ainsi que des déplacements spatiaux. Cette analyse porte un regard particulier sur le sens de la vie, du bien-être et du progrès selon les cultures traditionnelles autochtones qui se basent sur une vision globale de la vie commune sur la Terre ancestrale. Cette cosmologie est mise en contraste avec la culture mondialisée qui encourage notamment l’utilisation non-traditionnelle des terrains et l'exploitation des peuples traditionnels autochtones. L'environnementalisme autochtone reflété dans les romans d'Armstrong et d’Agary considère les relations des humains avec la Terre comme étant une dépendance familiale interconnectée. Cette relation ne se définit pas sur base des notions extrêmes d'abstinence romancée ou de non-dépendance sur la Terre. Elle n’est pas définie non plus par des notions de l'exploitation écocidaire capitaliste de la Terre. À la lumière de la critique environnementale de Whispering in Shadows et de Yellow-Yellow, je propose que les deux textes soient lus comme des éco-littératures. Cependant, le travail des deux romans écocritiques est fondé non sur les notions occidentales de l’écocritique qui privilégient souvent les non-humains dans un environnementalisme que Graham Huggan et Helen Tiffin (2010) décrivent comme étant « antihumain », mais plutôt sur celles qui considèrent les humains et les non-humains non pas comme des sujets en concurrence, mais comme les parties interdépendantes et intimement liées au sein d’une seule entité: la Terre. La conception de la question du déplacement selon Agary et Armstrong déstabilise la perception dominante matérialiste de la Terre en montrant que la Terre est porteuse d’un sens et d'une identité qui peuvent sembler arbitraires, mais qui englobent au fait la culture, la vie sociale, personnelle et communautaire. Je propose qu’une base solide pour gagner la guérison spirituelle, la préservation des cultures marginalisées et la lutte contre la mondialisation se trouve dans la réaffirmation des relations culturellement fondées avec la terre, la reconnexion à la terre et la construction de réseaux localisées entre les individus dans les communautés éco-dévasté, ainsi qu’entre ces communautés, dans une forme de « mondialisation d’en bas. » La collaboration entre les minorités et l'affirmation culturelle ont de la potentielle à déstabiliser et résister la mondialisation de manière durable. Cette globalisation d’en bas isole aussi les communautés de l'hégémonie des modèles socio-culturels dominants venant souvent de l’occident. Les liens familiaux étroits que partagent les peuples autochtones et leur Terre, ainsi que les significations historiques, culturels et économiques de la Terre pour ces communautés autochtones, suggèrent que la perte des espaces terrestres traditionnelles sous les systèmes de la mondialisation est vécue comme une véritable expérience traumatisante et dévastatrice. Cette injustice normalise par la suite une tendance de la violence latérale et de l'instabilité sociale qui devient une violence autoreproductrice et qui maintient le processus historique du génocide lent: «le préjudice émotionnel et physique subi par les victimes de la violence au fil du temps qui mène à la pauvreté extrême et à la mort prématurée pour beaucoup» (ma traduction : Cottam, Huseby, et Lutze 2). Au cœur des textes d'Armstrong et d’Agary se trouvent des critiques contre les injustices sociales et environnementales émanant des activités industrielles dans les espaces traditionnelles autochtones. L’environnementalisme d'Armstrong et d’Agary décrit des cosmologies autochtones qui interagissent entre l'écologie et les aspects culturelles, économiques et sociaux du développement durable. L’environnementalisme autochtone d’Armstrong et l’environnementalisme africain d’Agary, en fonction de leurs cosmologies traditionnelles respectives, ne conceptualisent pas des «préoccupations environnementales» et les questions de justice dans le contexte des questions distinctes qui devraient être liées comme la culture dominante occidentale les conçoivent. Pour eux, les questions de l'équité, de la justice, de la stabilité environnementale, spirituelle et culturelle ne sont qu’une et la même question du développement durable.

This thesis considers a range of contemporary poets' responses to science, emphasising the diversity of these engagements and exploring how poetry can disrupt or re-negotiate the barriers between the two activities. My first chapter explores the idea of ‘authority' in both science and poetry and considers how these authorities co-exist in the work of two poet-scientists, Miroslav Holub and David Morley. My second chapter considers the role of metaphor in science and the effect of transferring scientific terms into poetry, specifically with reference to the poetry of Michael Symmons Roberts who engages with the metaphors related to the human genome. In my third chapter I focus on collections by Ruth Padel and Emily Ballou that tell the life of Charles Darwin in verse. I discuss how these collections function as forms of scientific biography and show that poetic engagement with Darwin's thought processes reveals some of the similarities between scientific and poetic thinking. An area of science such as quantum mechanics may seem too complex for a non-scientist to respond to in poetry, but in my fourth chapter I show how Jorie Graham uses ideas from twentieth-century physics to re-think the materialism of the world and our perception of it. My final chapter is concerned with the relationship between ecopoetry and ecological science, with regard to the work of John Burnside. I show that although he is informed about scientific matters, in his poetry he suggests that science isn't the only way of understanding the world. Rather than framing science and poetry in terms of the ‘two cultures', this thesis moves away from antagonism towards productive interaction and dialogue. Whilst science and poetry are clearly very different activities, the many points of overlap and connection between them suggest that poetry is a resonant and unique way of exploring scientific ideas.