‘We’re going on a bear hunt’: A posthumanist examination of the representation of bears and child-bear relations within children’s literature

Abstract

This dissertation uses a posthumanist lens to investigate the prevalent image of the bear
within children’s literature. Through a textual and thematic analysis of three children’s texts
which focus on relationships with fictional bears and children, the study utilises a
posthumanist framework in the analysis of the chosen texts to, in turn, consider and identify
trends within these stories. This research subsequently explores and presents numerous
potential implications that these children’s texts could have on young readers, subsequently
driving the primary research question of this thesis: how might the prevalent image of the
bear within children’s literature affect child readers? Literature in the relevant fields of study
related to the topic are reviewed within chapter two. This includes research regarding the
representation of animals within children’s books, wider child-animal relations, eco-literacy,
anthropomorphism, and specific bear characters in children’s literature. A general overview
of the three selected children’s texts is then presented. The chosen texts are The Dancing
Bear by Michael Morpurgo (2012), The Last Bear by Hannah Gold (2021) and Big Bear Little
Brother by Carl Norac (2010). The methodology used in this thesis is a close textual and
thematic analysis of each text. The study examines the representation of the bear, the
depicted relationship between bear and human child and a depicted sense of
interconnectedness between the two. This thesis identifies potential trends in the texts,
examining and subsequently explaining the potential imaginative and practical implications
of children’s literature in which bears are represented. It subsequently finds that, despite
these texts being fictional, they provide young readers the opportunity to interact with key
ideas surrounding human-animal relationships – and issues that emerge when
anthropocentric human societies fail to acknowledge and appreciate the emotional capacities
and agency of the animal.