Skip to main content

Nature and Becoming in a Picturebook About “Things That Are”

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Ecocritical Perspectives on Children's Texts and Cultures

Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature ((CRACL))

Abstract

In her ecocritical reading of the Norwegian picturebook Sånt som er (2010, Things That Are) by Svein Nyhus, the author studies the representations of nature and the child character’s relation to her environment. This chapter examines how this picturebook may both influence and interact with the child reader’s images of nature and natural elements and thus participate in the formation of the child as an ecocitizen. The author draws attention to the both playful and defamiliarizing aesthetic quality of the book, which makes the readers aware of their natural surroundings in ecopoetic ways. The concept of nature offered is manifold and diverse, and the book demonstrates how the affordance of one’s natural surroundings is relative to the perceiver’s experience.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Works Cited

  • Clark, T. (2014). Nature, Post Nature. In: L. Westling ed., The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 75–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrard, G. (2012). Ecocriticism. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, J. (1978). The Ecological Approach to the Visual Perception of Pictures. Leonardo, 11, pp. 227–235. Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, J. (2015). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Classic Edition. New York and London: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glotfelty, C. (1996). Introduction. In: C. Glotfelty & H. Fromm eds., The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens (Georgia) and London: University of Georgia Press, pp. xv–xxxvii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iser, W. (1978). The Act of Reading. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlsen, G. (2015). Natur og danning. In: B. O. Hallås & G. Karlsen eds., Natur og danning. Profesjonsutøvelse, barnehage og skole. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, pp. 21–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khaneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Strous and Ferroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lidström, S., & Garrard, G. (2014). Images Adequate to Our Predicament. Ecology, Environment and Ecopoetics. Environmental Humanities, 5, pp. 35–53. www.environmentalhumanities.org.

  • Massey, G., & Bradford, C. (2011). Children as Ecocitizens: Ecocriticism and Environmental Texts. In: K. Mallan & C. Bradford eds., Contemporary Children’s Literature and Film: Engaging with Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 109–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyhus, S. (2010a). Bildebokskolen 50. Loaded from: http://sveinnyhus.blogspot.no/p/bildebokskolen.html.

  • Nyhus, S. (2010b). Bildebokskolen 40. Loaded from: http://sveinnyhus.blogspot.no/p/bildebokskolen.html.

  • Nyhus, S. (2012). Sånt som er. Oslo: Gyldendal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhedin, U. (2013). Kaos och ordning - att berätta ur barnets perspektiv och våga möta barndomens mörker. In: U. Rhedin, Oscar K., & L. Erikson eds., En fanfar för bilderboken. Alfabeta, pp. 37–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sjklovskij, V. (1916 [1991]). Kunsten som grep. In: A. Kittang, A. Linneberg, A. Melberg, & H. H. Skei eds., Moderne litteraturteori. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, pp. 11–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westling, L. (2014). Introduction. In: L. Westling ed., The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marianne Røskeland .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Røskeland, M. (2018). Nature and Becoming in a Picturebook About “Things That Are”. 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_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics