Till naturen : Ekokritiska trådar i Thomas Tidholms författarskap

Sammanfattning: In the following essay, I examine the ecocritical aspects of the writings of Thomas Tidholm, Swedish poet and children’s author. I argue for the existence of “green threads” that permeate the authorship, and analyse them through three thematic chapters where several of Tidholm’s texts, for children and adults, are juxtaposed in order to expand, contrast and deepen one another. The themes are: approaching the other, language and humanity and parts and unity. In my analysis I show that Tidholm continues to return to these themes throughout many different texts, exploring the difficulties and possibilities in human relationships to each otherand to nature. I conclude that even though Tidholm questions whether we truly can come close to, communicate with and fully understand others (humans or otherwise), he seems to hold the conviction that it is vitally important that we try. While the essay belongs in the field of ecocriticism, my working approach has been that of ordinary language philosophy as defined by literary scholar Toril Moi, following the works of Wittgenstein, Austin and Cavell. Thus, the essay is written in a spirit of acklowledgement rather than scepticism – my aim has been to bring out important aspects of the texts and show that, when read together, those aspects are enhanced. I find this especially important since the readerships of poetry and picture books do not always overlap. Furthermore, I suggest that Thomas Tidholm can be seen as a contemporary thinker whose ideas question and seek alternatives to the individualism of capitalist modern society. Keywords: ecocritisism, Thomas Tidholm, nature, environment, language