Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene

Marek Oziewicz is Professor of Literacy Education and Sidney and Marguerite Henry Professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the College of Education and Human Development, Universty of Minnesota - Twin Cities, USA. He is the author of One Earth, One People (2008), which won the 2010 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies; Justice in Young Adult Speculative Fiction (2015); and 5 co-edited collections, and over 50 articles and book chapters.Brian Attebery is Professor of English at Idaho State University, USA and Editor or the Journal of the Fantastic in Art. His publications include Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth (2019) and Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home (2019). In 2019 he was Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Fantasy at the University of Glasgow.Tereza Dedinová is Assistant Professor in the Department of Czech Literature, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. She has published on theory of the fantastic from the cognitive perspective, on the representation of the actual world in fantasy, and on the Czech fantastika.

Mind opening.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsList of Academic ContributorsList of ArtistsIntroduction: The choice we have in the stories we tell Marek Oziewicz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USAPart I. Trouble in the AirAnthropos and the Air Brian Attebery, Idaho State University, USAFrom the Third Age to the Fifth Season: confronting the Anthropocene through fantasy Brian AtteberyWho knows where the time goes? Nisi Shawl, author, editor and journalistPlaying with the trouble: children and the Anthropocene in Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch series Lindsay Burton,University of Cambridge, UKRewrite Katherine Applegate, authorStaying with the singularity: nonhuman narrators and more-than-human mythologies Alexander Popov, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", BulgariaThe eye of the story Joseph Bruchac / Nokidahozid, authorFantasy for the Anthropocene: on the ecocidal unconscious, planetarianism, and imagination of biocentric futures Marek OziewiczAstroNuts, the origin story Jon Scieszka, authorPart II. Dreaming the Earth Anthropos and the Earth Brian AtteberyEmbodying the permaculture story: Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series Tereza Dedinová, Masaryk University, CzechiaWhere is the place for seagrass and weevils in children’s literature? Eliot Schrefer, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USAArboreal magic and kinship in the Chthulucene: Margaret Mahy’s trees Melanie DuckworthJust imagine Barbara Henderson, authorFrom portable landscapes to themed thrill rides: Rowling’s heterotopic hopescapes Stephanie Weaver, Savannah College of Art and Design, USADoes fantasy literature have a place in the climate change crisis? Craig Russell, USA“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, University of Sheffield, UKCelebrations of resilience Elin Kelsey, author and scholarPart III: Visions in the WaterAnthropos and the Ocean Brian AtteberyKim Stanley Robinson’s case for hope in New York 2140 John Rieder, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, USAMyth makes us see Adam Gidwitz, authorSleeping with the fishmen: reimagining the Anthropocene through oceanic-chthonic kinships Prema Arasu, University of Western Australia, Australia and Drew Thornton, Curtin University, USAFish Girl’s dilemma Donna Jo Napoli, authorFrom culture hero to emissions zero: critiquing Maui’s extractivist mindset in Disney’s Moana Christopher D. Foley, University of Southern Mississippi, USAFinding balance and hope in the Indigenous past David Bowles, authorReimagining youth relations with Moananuiakea (The large, expansive ocean): contemporary Niuhi Mo‘olelo (man-eating shark stories) and environmental activism Caryn Kunz Lesuma, Brigham Young University, USAThe future that has yet to be imagined Shaun Tan, artist writer and film makerPart IV: Playing with Fire Anthropos and the Fire Brian AtteberyConvert or kill: disanthropocentric systems and religious myth in Jemisin’s Broken Earth Derek J. Thiess, University of North Georgia, USAReimaging the upright ape Jane Yolen, authorMyths of (un)creation: narrative strategies for confronting the Anthropocene Jacob Burg, Boston University, USA The stepping stone, the Boulder, and the Star: a fable for the Anthropocene Grace L. Dillon, Portland State University, USAOn monsters and other matters of housekeeping:reading Jeff VanderMeer with Donna Haraway and Ursula K. Le Guin Kim Hendrickx, University of Leuven, BelgiumThe seriousness of writing funny Molly B. Burnham, authorLiteralizing hyperobjects: on (mis)representing global warming in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones Markus Laukkanen, Tampere University, FinlandIndex