Beyond Urbanization: (Un)sustainable Geographies and Young People's Literature
2021-05
Loading...
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Beyond Urbanization: (Un)sustainable Geographies and Young People's Literature
Authors
Published Date
2021-05
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
The Anthropocene is an epoch of ecological destruction. It is also a conceptual apparatus that denotes the various systems that entail this destruction (Clifford, 2013). Of these systems, urbanization—as both a social system and cultural value—retains popular and scholarly focus as a welcomed geographical expression of a sustainable, global human society (Heldke, 2006). This attention masks the environmental and social extraction that occurs in rural geographies (Ching and Creed, 1997; Cervone, 2017), as well this destruction’s inequitable impacts within and across these geographies (Bullard, 2005; Martinez-Aller, 2014). Drawing on methodologies of Marxist cultural analysis (Williams, 1963), I explore the relationship between urbanization processes and the ways rural ecologies are represented in literature for young people. I supplement literary analysis with interview data with young rural readers, sociological data, and environmental data. With insights offered by Marxist ecology (Marx, 1894; Foster, 2000), postcolonial ecology (Guha, 2013; Whyte, 2017) and critical geography (Soja, 2010; Brenner, 2019), I argue that fictionalized representations of rurality in young people’s literature inadvertently distance readers from the ecological realities playing out in the geographies they purport to depict. Still, more recent works of literature for young people that depict rural characters engaging in ecological activism and solidarity may suggest an emergent, critical, geographically-attuned sensibility. Inspired by these works, I suggest that careful reflection on the geographical valences of the Anthropocene reveals possibilities for more plural, inclusive, and ecologically-attuned societies featuring youth immersion in and attention to rural places as sites worthy of their labor and joy.
Description
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2021. Major: Education, Curriculum and Instruction. Advisor: Marek Oziewicz. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 163 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Kleese, Nick. (2021). Beyond Urbanization: (Un)sustainable Geographies and Young People's Literature. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/257117.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.