The contention of this thesis is that the environmental crisis is a result of cultural
attitudes to nature as much as it is of material human impact. This study therefore seeks to
address a fundamental issue for literary studies, namely the representation of nature in literature.
This critical / creative project forms a natural progression from past considerations of
ecocriticism, which explore how nature has been represented historically, while the creative
element takes the form of an experimental young adult novel1 that correlates with the critical
part of my thesis. Following an outline of cultural notions of nature and wilderness in Western
culture and how these inescapable historical concepts shape perception of the non-human, my
research then consists of two main elements, both of which investigate how an understanding of
Merleau-Pontian phenomenology in conjunction with a Kristevan theory of language can reveal
how nature is portrayed in YA fiction. The critical element will attempt to develop and implement
a new eco-critical perspective and apply it to the literature of David Almond, while my creative
research exploring the effects of environment on human identity will be formed by a YA novel,
entitled Pinhead. Central to both, will be the examination of how the ‘gestural’ origins of
‘semiotic’ ‘wild language’, are fundamental in shaping narratives which reconnect readers with
their own innate sense of primal ‘carnality’. The thesis will explore how a narrative drawing on the
‘gestural’ elements of the poetic voice can represent humanity and nature within a unified
biosphere, rather than as separate entities. In short, A Theory of Primal Writing aims to utilise
aspects of Kristevan semanalysis to provide a connection with, and a framework for, aspects of
Merleau-Pontian phenomenology, particularly the concept of an ‘affective material dimension of language, that contributes to meaning’, which is common to both theorists. This hybrid position allows the development of a new ecocritical perspective which encourages new readings of how nature is portrayed in fiction. It also, through the identification of relevant narrative techniques, develops a creative tool with which to foreground nature.