AustLit

'This research is part of a larger investigation examining female protagonists’ interactions with the ‘landscape’ in young adult fiction. It will argue that a close study of Lucy Christopher’s novel, Stolen (2009), demonstrates her use of the ‘landscape’ as a vehicle to both create and mitigate trauma for the protagonist, Gemma. This can be depicted by reading the novel in relation to two notions of environmental writing described by John Stephens (2006). The first ideological perspective Stephens describes in fiction is a human –‘landscape’ relationship where characters appear to be positioned embodying a higher status. This assumes control over the environment, creating trauma when characters face harsh ‘landscapes’. The second perspective models feelings of belonging within the ‘landscape’, prompting the protagonist to care for it. This enables characters to overcome their trauma and in doing so achieve a new sense of agency. The paper will draw on Clare Bradford’s (2008) definition of agency in young adult dystopian fiction. Bradford’s book focuses on social, institutional and cultural arrangements that produce conflict in utopian and dystopian fiction. Her ideas on agency will be applied to this research but rather than examining human-made structures that engineer conflict, this paper will consider non-human conflict represented in the novel. Then drawing from Christopher’s (2011) auto-ethnographic paper on Stolen, this research will analyse the ways that Gemma's relationship with the ‘landscape’ is the vehicle used by Christopher to reshape her character’s agency when viewed through the lens of Stephens’ (2006).'

Source: Abstract.