Ecological Catastrophe in the Dystopia Novels of Tanya Malyarchuk and Serhiy Oksenyk
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15330/clid.2.1.58-74Keywords:
ecological disaster, children’s literature, dystopia novels, eco-critical approach, post-apocalyptic plotAbstract
The article examines the theme of ecological disaster as a central motif in Ukrainian prose for children and youth using the example of dystopian works by Tanya Malyarchuk (MOX NOX) and Serhiy Oksenyk (trilogy Through the Forest. By the Sky, by the Water). It analyzes how the scenarios of ecological apocalypse are artistically represented in these works, and shows the models of the heroes’ behavior.
The ecological disaster in these novels appears not as the background, but as the artistic and semantic center, revealing cultural, social and ethical crises of modern times. In the novel MOX NOX, through the images of an ideal (dreamy) and destroyed natural world, the author demonstrates the contrast between harmony and the consequences of anthropocentric invasion. The heroine Teresa dreams of ecological restoration and constructive interaction between people and nature, focusing on biodiversity and the power of nature to self-regenerate.
In Serhiy Oksenyk’s trilogy, the destroyed world after the ecological disaster is a territory of struggle between a consumerist approach to nature and efforts to save the remnants of life. The child heroes, in particular Lysy, act as carriers of ecological awareness, which forms a model of “ecological uprising” – a protest against destructive systems and a desire to restore the natural balance.
As the analysis shows, the dystopian genre allows authors to vividly depict the consequences of ecological disasters and social crises. At the same time, due to their emotional resonance, such works form ecological thinking, a responsible attitude towards the nature, environmentally conscious and proactive behavior in young readers, and strengthen the understanding of the connection between a person’s moral choice and a state of the environment.
The article uses methods of literary analysis and typological comparison, tools of the ecocritical approach, which allowed us to identify key markers of ecological disaster in dystopian novels. This is a destroyed civilization, loss of biodiversity, resource scarcity, climate change, technological ruins, and lost ecological memory.
References
Bradford, C., Mallan, K., Stephens, J., & McCallum, R. (2008). New world orders in contemporary children's literature: Utopian transformations. Palgrave Macmillan.
Buell, L. (1995). The environmental imagination: Thoreau, nature writing, and the formation of American culture. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1nzfgsv
Buell, L. (2005). The future of environmental criticism: Environmental crisis and literary imagination. Blackwell Publishing.
Cocinos, C. (1994). What is ecocriticism? In Definition ecocritical theory and practice: Sixteen position papers from the 1994 Western Literature Association Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah–6 October 1994. https://www.asle.org/wp-content/uploads/ASLE_Primer_DefiningEcocrit.pdf
Dobrin, S. I., & Kidd, K. B. (Eds.). (2004). Wild things: Children's culture and ecocriticism. Wayne State University Press.
Doughty, T., Deszcz-Tryhubczak, J., & Grafton, J. (Eds.). (2025). Children’s literatures, cultures, and pedagogies in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary entanglements. Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350510005
Gaard, G. (2009). Children’s environmental literature: From ecocriticism to ecopedagogy. Neohelicon, 36(2), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7
Gladwin, D. (2017). Ecocriticism. Oxford Bibliographies. https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780190221911-0014
Glotfelty, C. (1996). Introduction: Literary studies in an age of environmental crisis. In C. Glotfelty & H. Fromm (Eds.). The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology. University of Georgia Press (pp. xv–xxxvii).
Goga, N. (2018). Children’s literature as an exercise in ecological thinking. In N. Goga, L. Guanio-Uluru, B. Hallås, & A. Nyrnes (Eds.). Ecocritical perspectives on children's texts and cultures. Palgrave Macmillan (pp. 61–80). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90497-9_4
Goga, N., Guanio-Uluru, L., Hallås, B. O., Høisæter, S. M., Nyrnes, A., & Rimmereide, H. E. (2023). Ecocritical dialogues in teacher education. Environmental Education Research, 29(10), 1430–1442. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2213414
Goga, N., Guanio-Uluru, L., Hallås, B., & Nyrnes, A. (Eds.). (2018). Ecocritical perspectives on children’s texts and cultures: Nordic dialogues. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90497-9
Hintz, C., & Ostry, E. (Eds.). (2003). Utopian and dystopian writing for children and young adults. Routledge.
Muhamad, I. H. (2024). Ecocriticism and children's literature: Dr. Seuss's The Lorax as an example. World Journal of English Language, 14(3), 139–147.
Kachak, T., & Blyznyuk, T. (2025a). Contemporary Ukrainian children's poetry and prose. In M. Świetlicki & A. Ulanowicz (Eds.). Fieldwork in Ukrainian children’s literature. Routledge (pp. 169–196). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003594673-11
Kachak, T., & Blyznyuk, T. (2025b). Eco-Rebels in Contemporary Ukrainian Children’s Literature as a Tool for Forming Readers’ Eco-Activity. Humanities, 14(6), 124. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060124
Kachak, T., & Blyznyuk, T. (2025c). From fairy tale to ecocriticism: Analysis of novellas about nature by H. Pahutyak, A. Bachynskyi, V. Polyanko. Bulletin of Science and Education, 2(32), 281–294. https://doi.org/10.15330/jpnu.12.1.58-68 [in Ukrainian].
Kachak, T. (2018). Tendentsii rozvytku ukrainskoi prozy dlia ditei ta yunatstva pochatku XXI st [Trends in the development of Ukrainian prose for children and youth at the beginning of the 21st century]. Akademvydav [in Ukrainian].
Kachak, T. (2025). Ukrainska literatura dlia ditei ta yunatstva [Ukrainian literature for children and youth] (3rd ed.). VC “Akademiia” [in Ukrainian].
Kumanska, Y. O. (2021). Ecological aspects of modern literature for children (on the material of prose by Z. Menzatiuk, O. Ilchenko, I. Andrusiak) [PhD thesis, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University]. https://tnpu.edu.ua/naukova-robota/docaments-download/k58-053-02/Dis_Kumanska.pdf [in Ukrainian].
Kyzylova, V. (2024). The ecological fairy tale in the system of Ukrainian literature for children and youth: Typology and functions. Black Sea Philological Studies, 5, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.32782/bsps-2024.5.7 [in Ukrainian].
Malyarchuk, T. (2018). MOX NOX. Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva [in Ukrainian].
Marchenko, N. (2024). Literature for children and youth of independent Ukraine (1991–2023): Sociocultural aspect. Children’s Literature: Interdisciplinary Discourse, 1(1), 13–36. https://doi.org/10.15330/clid.1.1.13-36 [in Ukrainian].
Massey, G., & Bradford, C. (2011). Children as ecocitizens: Ecocriticism and environmental texts. In K. Mallan & C. Bradford (Eds.). Contemporary children’s literature and film: Engaging with theory. Palgrave Macmillan (pp. 109–126).
Oksenyk, S. (2014). Lisom, nebom, vodoiu [Through the Forest. By the Sky. By the Water]. (Vols. 1–3). Smoloskyp. [in Ukrainian].
Olijnyk, S. (2014). Elementy slov’yans’koyi mifolohii u khudozhn’omu sviti trilohiyi Serhiya Oksenyka “Lisom, Nebom, Vodoiu” [Elements of Slavic mythology in the artistic world of Serhiy Oksenyk's trilogy Through the Forest. By the Sky. By the Water]. Synopsis. Text. Context. Media, 4(8). https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/5400/7/S_Oliinyk_Synopsys_4_GI.pdf [in Ukrainian].
Ovdiichuk, L. (2020). Transformatsiia chasu v suchasnii fantastychnii prozi ta fentezi dlia ditei [Transformation of time in modern fantasy and science fiction for children]. Kliuch [Key]. https://chl.kiev.ua/key/Books/ShowBook/676 [in Ukrainian].
Rättyä, K. (2025). Eco-activism and strategic empathy in the novel. Vastakarvaan. Humanities, 14(4), 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14040089
Shinde, S. P. (2016). Ecocriticism: Concepts and implications. Research Chronicler: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 4(4), 107–114. http://research-chronicler.com/reschro/pdf/v4i4/4416.pdf
Świetlicki, M., & Ulanowicz, A. (2025). Introduction to Ukrainian children’s literature. In M. Świetlicki & A. Ulanowicz (Eds.). Fieldwork in Ukrainian children’s literature. Routledge (pp. 1–8). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003594673-1
van der Beek, S., & Lehmann, C. (2022). What can you do as an eco-hero? A study on the ecopedagogical potential of Dutch non-fictional environmental texts for children. Children’s Literature in Education, 55, 141–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09482-z
Ulanowicz, A. (2025). Ukraine’s cultural ambassadors: Contemporary Ukrainian picturebooks. In M. Świetlicki & A. Ulanowicz (Eds.), Fieldwork in Ukrainian children’s literature. Routledge (pp. 217–242). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003594673-13
Vardanian, M. (2022). Reading Chornobyl catastrophe within ecofiction. Children’s Literature in Education, 53(1), 1–17.
Vardanian, M., Dyrda, I., & Kirieieva, M. (2023). Cultural Memory of Chornobyl in Literature and Fine Arts (in Case of a Picturebook “The Flowers beside the Fourth Reactor” by K. Mikhalitsyna and Paintings by M. Prymachenko). ACNS Conference Series: Social Sciences and Humanities: 2nd International Conference on New Trends in Linguistics, Literature and Language Education (3L-Edu 2022) 18 May 2022, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Article 03003. https://doi.org/10.55056/cs-ssh/3/03003
