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Corporate Power, Environmental Devastation and Children's Literature: Insights from Dr. Seuss's The Lorax and Bill Peet's The Wump World

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Abstract

Corporate power has an intimidating impact on the environment. It causes environmental degradation and threatens the ecological balance and sustainability of the planet. This article analyses the representation of corporate power and its effects on the environment in two classic children’s books: Dr. Seuss’s (The Lorax, Random House Books for Young Readers, 1971) and Bill Peet’s (The Wump World, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1970). It examines how these two classic children’s books depict the environmental damage caused by corporate power in the 21st century and how they can educate and motivate young readers to care about environmental issues and their root causes. Using a critical discourse analysis approach based on Fairclough’s model, the article studies how language is used in both texts to construct and maintain dominant ideologies, manipulate and marginalize alternative voices and exploit natural resources and vulnerable communities. The findings reveal that the discourse of Once-ler and Pollutians reflects a capitalist and consumerist ideology that legitimizes their environmental destruction and silences environmental concerns. However, language can also be a tool of resistance and change that can challenge and expose the dominant ideology, as shown by the voices of the Lorax and the Wumps in the same texts. The article suggests that by reading and analyzing these two classic children’s books, young readers can learn to critically examine the language used by different actors and to use the language themselves to create a more just and sustainable society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Peshawar Campus Pakistan, Peshawar, Pakistan

    Mehnaz Khan & Kainat Zeb

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  1. Mehnaz Khan
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  2. Kainat Zeb
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Correspondence to Mehnaz Khan.

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Mehnaz Khan was born in Kohat (KPK), educated at Frontier Women University, and Islamia College University Peshawar (Pakistan). She is affiliated with National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Peshawar Campus (KPK) Pakistan. She has published many research papers in various reputed journals.

Kainat Zeb is Lecturer in English, National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Peshawar Campus Pakistan.

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Khan, M., Zeb, K. Corporate Power, Environmental Devastation and Children's Literature: Insights from Dr. Seuss's The Lorax and Bill Peet's The Wump World. Child Lit Educ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-023-09569-1

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