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Description
This paper examines Global, a children’s graphic novel by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano, which portrays the disastrous effects of climate change through the environmental challenges experienced by two adolescent protagonists. The story focuses on Sami whose poor living conditions are exacerbated by the devastating impacts of coastal flooding and cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, and Yuki who faces the violence of global warming through melting sea ice and disrupted wildlife in Northern Canada. Despite living in geographically distant locations, the two protagonists manifest similar affective responses such as anxiety, fear, and anger in their interactions with the endangered natural world. Global illustrates the ecological grief and empathic distress of children, emphasising both their affective perceptions and their psychological impressions of the ecological crisis. The visual elements of this graphic novel invite readers to both perceive the story sensorially and affectively as embodied concerns of the real world and encourage them to connect with the natural world through ecological consciousness. The protagonists’ responsiveness to destabilised ecological systems and their attuned engagement with nature remind readers of their own ethical responsibility to promote environmental sustainability. The aim of this paper is to discuss how the graphic novel can be employed as a distinctive medium to foster a better understanding of the global ecological crisis and enhance ecological literacy for children. This analysis of Global highlights that nature is an active agent which shapes the affective, cognitive and sensory experiences of the protagonists. This paper integrates climate psychology and affective ecocriticism with children’s literature criticism to explore how eco-grief and eco-anxiety can be reoriented into eco-empathy and resilience through ecological awareness and children’s affective entanglement with the ecological environment.
| Keywords | climate psychology, affective ecocriticism, ecological crisis, eco-grief, eco-empathy, children’s graphic novel |
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| tugcealkis@hotmail.com |