Nimmerklugs NaturKultur. Ökologische Narrative in Nikolaj Nosovs <i>Neznajka</i>-Trilogie

Summary In the three volumes of the Soviet children’s classic by Nikolai Nosov, published between 1954 and 1965, the finger-sized mite Neznayka and his friends have adventures between Flower City and Green City, encountering technological progress in the utopian Sun City and the anti-utopian Moon City. The korotyshki’s autonomous way of life in their fantasy world, a natural idyll whose resources are nonetheless being exploited, probably had as much to do with the success of the trilogy as it had with the educational progress of the main character. This article examines the topicality of the trilogy through a cultural-ecological reading. It uses nature and the environment as text-analytical categories to illuminate the literary staging of the nature-culture relationship and its social conditions as reflected in ecological narratives.