AustLit logo

AustLit

Alena Cicholewski (International) assertion Alena Cicholewski i(27275126 works by)
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 “Something Here Is Completely, Horribly, Unnaturally Wrong” : Uncanny Vegetation in Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s Aurora Rising Alena Cicholewski , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Storying Plants in Australian Children's and Young Adult Literature : Roots and Winged Seeds 2023; (p. 207-226)

'Australian authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s 2019 young adult space adventure Aurora Rising features several unsettling representations of plants. These do not just serve to create suspense but also to address questions concerning the relationship between humanity and nature. Approaching the plant horror elements in the novel from a postcolonial ecoGothic perspective enables engagement with the underlying anthropocentric bias of Aurora Rising and its entanglements with imperialist ideologies. Based on selected close readings, this chapter argues that the novel eventually does not critique exploitative (neo-)colonial-expansionist ways of thinking but perpetuates them by pitting two imperial powers (humans vs aliens) against each other. This fight leaves other living beings caught in the crossfire, reducing nature in the novel to a mere battleground against which a Cold War-like quest for dominance takes place.' (Publication abstract)
X