Indigenous Ecocriticism and the Relationships Between Humans and Nature in Catherine Knutsson’s Shadows Cast by Stars

Abstract

In the midst of the climate crisis, Young Adult dystopian literature offers a glimpse of the possible dark futures in store for all of us. Yet Indigenous Young Adult literature revises the natural world not as the enemy of the survival of human beings, but as a possible ally. In Cassandra Knutsson’s Shadows Cast by Stars, a plague is raging and Indigenous blood is key to human survival. Through her journey to save her community, Cassandra demonstrates how she builds a more positive relationship with nature. By offering alternative possibilities for how to treat and interact with nature, Shadows Cast by Stars recreates nature as agentive and sentient rather than inert or bent on destroying human beings. Instead, Shadows educates its readers on the positive relationships with nature possible within Indigenous ecocritical epistemologies.