Christian Ludwig
'Destroying things is much easier than making them' – Ecological Re-Readings of Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Fiction and their Potential for English Language Learning
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rüdiger Ahrens (i.R.), OBE, Prof. Dr. Dieter Wrobel
Having languished in the background for almost 20 years, young adult dystopian novels and their film adaptations have been rising in popularity since Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy The Hunger Games (2008-2010). More recently, the explosion in young adult dystopias has also gained increasing attention in literary and cultural studies as well as foreign language teaching and learning as they “address larger social and cultural movements and concerns”.(Mc Donough & Wagner, 157) similar to our own. The aim of this postdoctoral thesis is to explore young adult dystopias from an ecocritical perspective and interrogate the ways that the young adult protagonists is framed in relation to both nature and technology developments and the future of human struggle in a seemingly inhospitable environment. Furthermore, the potential of the eco-dystopian education novel in the contemporary EFL/ESL classroom to approach environmental issues and engage in ecological reflection will be investigated.
