Empowering Green Girls: An Ecofeminist Reading of Baba Yaga and the Black Sunflower and The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus

Abstract

AbstractTo children, nature is not only the shelter, savior, and life-maintaining force, but also the impressive world that they are involuntarily attracted to. The immense fascination with nature in children’s literature shows the significance of such a relation. This paper seeks to examine two plays for children that deal with the relation between young girls and nature: Baba Yaga and the Black Sunflower (2000) by Carol Korty and The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus (2020) by Eric Coble. Both plays do not merely highlight the importance of nature and the natural world, but also emphasize the relentless attempts of young girls to protect nature and reconcile with its inhabitants. The protagonists in both plays emerge as the central driving force; they embark on a journey to the natural world in which they find peace, understand the value of nature, and, finally, save the natural and the human world as well. Drawing upon ecofeminism, the paper aims to examine both plays as ecofeminist texts through analyzing the young girls’ perception of the injustice done to the natural world and its dwellers, and their journeys that end with the reconciliation with nature.