Abstract
In this chapter Ørjasæter offers a postcolonial perspective on ecocritical studies of children’s literature. By following the jungle discourse through colonial writings and the entertainment industries, she demonstrates how the jungle has become a mediated wilderness, thus blurring the nature–culture divide. Furthermore, she demonstrates that the rewilding concept adds a fruitful new focus to the apocalypse motif of the jungle discourse, while the post-pastoral concept gives it a new direction. Through analyses of two contemporary Nordic YA novels, Ørjasæter argues that the jungle motif serves to demonstrate an apocalypse of man as well as a utopian new beginning for mankind, starting with children.
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Ørjasæter, K. (2018). From Wilderness Through Mediation Towards Rewilding: The Negotiations of the Jungle Discourse in Black Ivory and The Cry from the Jungle. In: Goga, N., Guanio-Uluru, L., Hallås, B., Nyrnes, A. (eds) Ecocritical Perspectives on Children's Texts and Cultures. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90497-9_7
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