This project develops an eco-critical perspective for the reading of portrayals of nature in literature and applies it to the fiction of David Almond. The creative element explores more empowering ways of representing nature in adolescent fiction and explores the origins of folk tales, developing a new myth for the 21st century. Drawing on the atmosphere of the Hebridean Ceilidh House, it also implements a phenomenological response to the ‘more-than-human’ environment as a major influence within the story, linking to ancient pagan tales and myths that formed in response to a reciprocal interaction with animal entities and the Earth.
(Supervisors: Prof Bill Gray and Dr Hugh Dunkerley).