Ploughing the Field: YA Literature and Justice in the Anthropocene

Corbett, Emily and Phillips, Leah (2025) Ploughing the Field: YA Literature and Justice in the Anthropocene. The International Journal of Young Adult Literature, 6 (1). pp. 1-19. ISSN 2634-5277

[img]
Preview
Text
Ploughing the Field YA Literature and Justice in the Anthropocene.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (337kB) | Preview

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract: In an age of climate collapse, systemic inequality, war, and mass displacement, the narratives through which we make sense of the world matter more than ever. As Hubert Zapf argues, “literature is a form of cultural knowledge which stages, in the medium of language and discourse itself, complex dynamical processes of life on the boundary of the culture-nature interaction” (865). YA fiction, in particular, can serve as a charged site where dominant ideologies are both reinforced and challenged, offering young people ways of recognising their social realities while imagining alternative futures. Through the experiences of protagonists navigating worlds that are metaphorically and literally burning, YA illuminates how narrative itself can become a tool for negotiating power and agency under conditions of ecological precarity.

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: Ms Raisa Burton
Date Deposited: 27 Oct 2026 16:18
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2026 16:18
URI: https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18162

Actions (login required)

Edit Item Edit Item