5 Studying texts specifically concerned with the environment
Literature and media texts have long drawn on the environment as subject matter to express moral, political, social and aesthetic themes. Picturebooks and film texts, documentaries and newspaper features, novels, plays and poems present the author’s or director’s views on the relationship of people with the natural world. Often, fictional texts appeal to sentiment – a desire to return to a state of natural grace; documentary, advertising or newspaper texts may also invoke sentiment but often with an edge of crisis.
Disney – emotion and environment
In Wild Sentiment, David Whitley examines Disney’s animated films from the perspective of their engagement with the theme of wild nature, arguing that this has been a central theme of these films since 1937. Although not all the animated films from the Disney studios focus on wild creatures or natural environments, Whitley argues:
The theme is prevalent enough to make a claim for its centrality justifiable and even those films… which feature domesticated animals or humans as their sole protagonists are often concerned with contrasts between the ‘natural’ and the ‘human’ in their assessments of behaviour. (Whitley, 2008:1)
Since Disney animations always target the emotions, they have been subject to academic analysis which sees them as ‘conservatively sentimental’ (ibid. p2), vulgar or trivial (Byrd, 2004: 59). The Disney corporation is also criticised for its near monopoly of children’s entertainment and presentation of a cosy, western imperialist views and carrying racist and sexist messages (Byrne & McQuillan, 1999; Zipes, 2001:182; Byrd, 2004:62). However, since these films have been the staple of many young children’s popular cultural diet for many years, Whitley argues for ‘a more open point of view’ particularly in the way sentiment is understood within popular cultural texts:
This is a particularly important issue at our present historical conjuncture because so much of our mainstream political rhetoric on environmental issues in the West is directed towards rationalist goals of ‘sustainability’ designed to accommodate relatively minor changes in outlook and lifestyle to the underlying norms of economic growth and productivity with technology being viewed as the principal resource that needs to be engaged to stave off global crisis. (Whitley, 2008: 3)
Whitley outlines the counter argument that we need to change:
the way we feel about the world, the way we understand and relate to the other – non-human as well as human – organisms that share our sphere of existence, the way we experience our identities as human beings in relation to the complex web of linked organic systems that intersect our lives. (ibid p.3)
In an earlier article (Whitley, 2006) Whitley also points out that children are very aware that animated films are interpretations and not portrayals of reality. The question is ‘how do they move us and what kinds of understanding do they promote?’ (Whitley, 2006: 26). Student teachers might keep these questions in mind as they view, for example, Bambi, one of the earliest films with attentive artistic detail to the natural world despite its sugary anthropomorphism. Equally, they might look at Pocahontas, with its dubious interpretation of a particular historical moment in the life of the Algonquin Indian nation or one of the more recent animations from Dreamworks, for example, Spirit – Stallion of the Cimarron. Each of these offers a different take on questions about the emotional impact of animated films about the environment.
After viewing Bambi, Pocahontas or Spirit (or appropriate extracts) in pairs or groups student teachers might consider the questions:
- How does this film move us?
- What kinds of understanding does it promote?
Taking a particular extract from one of the films, student teachers they might also consider, for example:
- How colour and sound helps to create the director’s message about the environment.
- How close-up shots of animal and human characters are used by the director to create characterisation.
These activities can also be used with pupils.
Popular animated films represent a key vehicle for children’s understanding of the natural world and using the questions and prompts above, student teachers can develop units of work based on a chosen film to explore its environmental messages, as well as its qualities as a narrative with plot, setting, characters and theme. See also other ITE English topics on Media and the Role of Popular Culture.
Complexity and ambiguity about the natural world and humans: Princess Mononoke
Student teachers working with older pupils might like to view the more edgy, but equally emotionally engaging, anime film Princess Mononoke directed by Miyazake Hayao. Susan Napier argues that this film, ‘offers a vision of cultural dissonance, spiritual loss, and environmental apocalypse’ (Napier, 2001: 176). The forest, mountains and wild life are threatened by the encroachment of industry, but to Miyazake the film tells the story of ‘a battle between humanity and the wild gods’ (ibid. p.179). This dark and ambiguous narrative, with its scenes of beauty and destruction, by no means offers a straightforward message about conservation. Miyazake intended the film to explore Japanese cultural values and cultural myths but to those who are not familiar with the cultural context, the views of human intervention in the environment offer fruitful ground for discussion and analysis.
You might take a clip from Pocahontas (the Wind Song sequence, perhaps) and one from Princess Mononoke* (the scene where Ashitaka is brought to the forest lake and is visited by the shihsigami, the deerlike spirit which rules the forest) and ask student teachers to consider the differences in presentation of the relationship between humans and nature. You may wish to focus on filmic devices like length of shot, use of sound and colour, and viewpoint as a basis for discussing how the film makers present environmental issues.
* Princess Mononoke has a PG certificate so can only be used with older pupils.
A viewing like this would help student teachers to develop School based activities to focus pupils’ attention on how films are constructed to carry environmental (and other) messages. For those teaching older pupils, a unit of work comparing Pocahontas and Princess Mononoke could open up issues about gender as well as environmental issues.
References
Byrd, L.M. (2004) ‘Somewhere outside the Forest: ecological ambivalence in
Neverland from The Little White Bird to Hook’. In S. Dobrin & K. Kidd Carson, R. (1999) Silent Spring. London: Penguin (first published in 1962) WildTHINGS: Children’s culture and ecocriticism. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press pp 71-81
Byrne, E. and McQuillan, M. (1999) Deconstructing Disney. London: Pluto Press
Dobrin, S. and Kidd, K. (2004) WildTHINGS: Children’s culture and ecocriticism. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press
Napier, S. (2001) Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave
Whitley, D. (2006) ‘Environmentally educational entertainment?’ The Primary English Magazine 11:3 pp25-27
Whitley, D. (2008) The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation. Aldershot, England and Burlington, USA: Ashgate Studies in Childhood
Zipes, J. (2001) Sticks and Stones: The troublesome success of children’s literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. London: Routledge
Children’s films:
Bambi (1942) The Walt Disney Corporation
Pocahontas (1995) The Walt Disney Corporation
Spirit – Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) DreamWorks
Princess Mononoke (1997) Ghibli Studios
 
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