Abstract

Environmental pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the use of natural resources in an unsustainable manner have intensified the need to explore innovative ways to cultivate ecological awareness and sustainable behaviors. Although scientific and technological solutions are extremely significant when tackling environmental problems, cultural and educational strategies also have a pivotal role in changing people’s attitudes and their relation to nature. This study offers a comparative analysis of environmental discourse in literary texts in order to assess the potential of such literature to develop ecological awareness and sustainability education. The study uses a qualitative comparative approach, which is based on ecocritical analysis of the selected environmental literary works, namely philosophical nature writing, environmental non-fiction, contemporary ecological fiction, and postcolonial climate narratives. The analysis of the selected environmental literature is carried out within five main dimensions: nature representation, human-nature relationship, environmental conflicts, ecological ethics, and educational value. The research proves that stories and literature contribute to pedagogical opportunities in terms of sustainability education through environmental knowledge, reflection, ecological values, and ethics regarding environmental matters. The suggested model reveals the complementary role of literature in the process of environmental learning and sustainable actions. The current research contributes to the field of environmental humanities by providing examples of how literary discourse can assist in the sustainability education process and help to create ecological awareness. Further areas of study could be related to digital storytelling, AI-based analysis of literature, and empirical study techniques.