Fantasy and myth in the Anthropocene : imagining futures and dreaming hope in literature and media / edited by Marek Oziewicz, Brian Attebery and Tereza Dědinová.
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Academic,
Copyright Date:
2022
Description:
xviii, 250 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm
Introduction: The choice we have in the stories we tell ... / Marek Oziewicz -- Trouble in the air. Anthropos and the air / Brian Attebery -- From the third age to the fifth season : confronting the Anthropocene through fantasy / Brian Attebery -- Who knows where the time goes? / Nisi Shaw -- Playing with the trouble : children and the Anthropocene in Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch series / Lindsay Burton -- Rewrite / Katherine Applegate -- Staying with the singularity : nonhuman narrators and more-than-human mythologies / Alexander Popov -- The eye of the story / Joseph Bruchac and Nokidahozid -- Fantasy for the Anthropocene : on the ecocidal unconscious, planetarianism, and imagination of biocentric futures / Marek Oziewicz -- AstroNuts, the origin story / Jon Scieszka -- Dreaming the Earth. Anthropos and the Earth / Brian Attebery -- Embodying the permaculture story : Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series / Tereza Dědinová -- Where is the place for seagrass and weevils in children's literature? / Eliot Schrefer -- Arboreal magic and kinship in the Chthulucene : Margaret Mahy's Trees / Melanie Duckworth -- Just imagine / Barbara Henderson -- From portable landscapes to themed thrill rides : Rowling's heterotopic hopescapes / Stephanie J. Weaver -- Does fantasy literature have a place in the climate change crisis? / Craig Russell -- "The earth is my home too, can't I help protect it?" : Planetary thinking, queer identities and environmentalism in The Legend of Korra, She-Ra, and Steven Universe / Aneesh Barai -- Celebrations of resilience / Elin Kelsey -- Visions in the Water. Anthropos and the ocean / Brian Attebery -- Kim Stanley Robinson's case for hope in New York 2140 / John Rieder -- Myth makes us see / Adam Gidwitz -- Sleeping with the fishmen : reimagining the Anthropocene through oceanic-chthonic kinships / Prema Arasu and Drew Thornton -- Fish Girl's dilemma / Donna Jo Napoli -- From culture hero to emissions zero : critiquing Maui's extractivist mindset in Disney's Moana / Christopher D. Foley -- Finding balance and hope in the Indigenous past / David Bowles -- Reimagining youth relations with Moananuiākea (The large, expansive ocean) : contemporary Niuhi Mo'olelo (man-eating shark stories) and environmental activism / Caryn Lesuma -- The future that has yet to be imagined / Shaun Tan -- Playing with fire. Anthropos and the fire / Brian Attebery -- Convert or kill : disanthropocentric systems and religious myth in Jemisin's Broken earth / Derek J. Thiess -- Reimaging the upright ape / Jane Yolen -- Myths of (un)creation : narrative strategies for confronting the Anthropocene / Jacob Burg -- The stepping stone, the Boulder, and the Star : a fable for the Anthropocene / Grace L. Dillon -- On monsters and other matters of housekeeping : reading Jeff VanderMeer with Donna Haraway and Ursula K. Le Guin / Kim Hendrickx -- The seriousness of writing funny / Molly B. Burnham -- Literalizing hyperobjects : on (mis)representing global warming in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones / Larkus Laukkanen.
Summary:
"The first study to look at the intersection of the discourse of the Anthropocene within the two highly influential and perennially popular storytelling modes of fantasy and myth, this book articulates the idea that if humanity is to have a future, it needs stories that articulate visions of a biocentric, ecological civilization. As the two story systems that have been humanity's most advanced technologies for collective dreaming, fantastic fiction and myths are helping us adopt a biocentric lens, re-kin us with other forms of life, and assist us in the transition to an ecological civilization. Deliberately moving away from dystopian narratives toward anticipatory imaginations of sustainable futures, this volume blends chapters by top scholars in the fields of climate fiction, science fiction, fantasy, myth, and Young-Adult literature studies with personal reflections by award-winning authors and illustrators of speculative fiction for young audiences such as Jeff Vandermeer, Shaun Tan, Jane Yolen, Katherine Applegate and Joseph Bruchac. Covering the works of major fantasy authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Terry Prachett, J. K. Rowling, China Mieville, Barbara Henderson, Jeanette Winterson, John Crowly, Richard Powers, George R. R. Martin and Kim Stanley Robinson, and offering interrogations of cultural expressions set in or from the UK, USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia, this book frames fantasy and myth as spaces where visions of sustainable futures can be designed with most detail and nuance. Rather than merely criticizing the ecocidal status quo, the book asks how Fantastic stories can mobilize resistance around ideas necessary for the emergence of an ecological civilization"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.