Holistic ecology considers nature and society as a whole, viewing humans and the environment as interdependent and interconnected. This article takes the lens of holistic ecology to examine the representation of human-nature relationships in Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls (2011) and explores how the novel guides the child reader to an environmental mind-set beyond overt didacticism. The article focuses on two aspects of the bond between the magical tree and the human characters in the novel: how the powerful tree empowers humans and how the human characters contribute to the tree's expressions of power. The eternal Green Man-as the tree introduces itself-embodies this bond by being simultaneously tree-like and humanlike, a complex merger of "the Green" (nature) and "the Man" (humanity). The monster-tree fulfils several powerful and empowering roles, such as monster and storyteller, destructive force and powerful healer, savage and philosopher, nightmare and escape. Importantly, it always keeps the shape of a yew tree. As such, A Monster Calls can contribute to children's environmental education by illustrating the connection between the natural environment and humans: the eternal bond between "the Green" and "the Man.

Images of human-animal-machine mergers—“cyborgs” in Donna Haraway’s terminology—are ways of exploring the human/non-human dichotomy and embracing non-human features as empowering: the cyborg supposedly enables humans to achieve their full potential by going beyond anthropocentric boundaries. Alternatively, the cyborg may not result in the empowerment of humans; on the contrary, it may lead to the complete loss of humanity. This article examines the interior conflict of the cyborg-protagonist in Peter Dickinson’s . Eva is subjected to life-saving experimental surgery during which her mind is transplanted into the body of a chimpanzee, and she speaks only by using a keyboard. Eva-the-cyborg explores the limits of human identity. Although she is expected to move beyond her human identity, perspective and body, Eva rejects these assumptions. Drawing on Judith Halberstam’s notion of “queer failure”, this article argues that Eva’s failure to achieve a balance between her human and non-human selves is a creative act which defeats humankind’s daring attempt to control the universe using scientific and technological achievements.

Inversion in The Book ThiefIn Gabriel García Márquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings a strange angel-like man appears in the human world. A different kind of other-worldly visitor features in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief 1. In this text it is Death who takes a journey into the hellish realms of Nazi Germany to discover the humanity of the humans who were dehumanised in the Holocaust. The Book Thief is the story of a nine-year-old Liesel Meminger who lives in Germany during the escalation of World War II. The novel has several levels of the plot development: Liesel’s life during war; her relationships with her foster parents Hans and Rosa, the other residents of their neighbourhood, and a Jewish fist-fighter Max, who avoids deportation by hiding in her home; Liesel’s book thievery (as the title suggests) and the power of storytelling. The novel is set in a realistically depicted German town and could belong to the genre of historical realism were it not that Liesel’s story is narrated by the other-worldly character: Death. Death is the only unreal character in this otherwise realistic novel, and though he does not interact with real human characters, we see all the events through his eyes. This ‘magical’ narrator unveils a broader history of the war and the Holocaust by questioning: What is real? What is normal? What is humane? The inversion enables Zusak to present horror that would otherwise be too complex to grasp. As Hegerfeldt comments: ‘The world is an absurd place where [...] anything is more believable than the truth. Magic realist fiction proposes that such a topsy-turvy reality requires a similarly inverted approach’ (Hegerfeldt 2005, p. 339).

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У статті проаналізовано монографічні розвідки, статті, рецензії, що належать до харківського періоду творчої діяльності видатного українського мистецтвознавця Стефана Таранушенка. Предмет дослідження -науковий дискурс та ідіолект ученого. Увагу приділено композиційним, виразним, комунікативним особливостям наукових текстів ученого. Установлено, що монографічні праці мають типову для цього жанру композиціюпослідовне членування інформації на передмову, розділи, закінчення. Розділи С. Таранушенко подає без виокремлення параграфів, пунктів, підпунктів. Для статей і рецензій характерне членування за допомогою абзаців. Виняток становить тільки одна стаття. Типовий абзац має три частини. Середня довжина абзаців становить 3-6 речень, трапляються й розлогіші, до 20 речень. Синтаксична структура текстів легка, прозора як наслідок вправного чергування складних і простих речень. Складні речення не виглядають надмірними. Для позначення особи автора в текстах науковець послуговується займенниковими іменниками першої особи, відповідними особовими формами дієслів, знеособленими формами, утіленими в дієслівних формах на -но, -то, дієсловами з постфіксом -ся, інфінітивом. Діалог із читачем дослідник організовує за допомогою питальних речень у текстах. Вони мотивують читача до співдумання, роблять його партнером ученого, підсилюють експресію викладу.