Sowing Seeds: Phytocriticism and the Botanical Dimensions of Indonesian Literature for Children and Young Adults

Abstract

Ecocritical studies of literature for children and young adults (LCYA) tend to focus on aspects of human-nature interactions, sustainability, and environmental justice in the Western literary canon. Ecocritics assess LCYA as an ecopedagogical tool for promoting empathic understanding of the natural world and for instilling environmental values in young readers. For instance, a seminal study, the edited collection Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism (2004), examines the interplay between LCYA and the development of environmental awareness in its audience. While many ecocritical analyses of LCYA focus, in particular, on the role of animal protagonists within the narratives, a considerably smaller segment of literary research examines the prominent botanical dimensions of many texts and the genre's potential to promote much-needed awareness of the plant world in an era of widespread biodiversity decline and loss. Of note is a study by Sheila Goins, completed in 2004, on the botanical content of children's science picture books published between 1990 and 2000. During the ten-year period highlighted in her study, Goins observed a substantial increase in the number of botanically-themed LCYA works addressing floristic diversity, plant life cycles and ecologies, ethnobotany, and traditional cultural knowledge of flora.