Forest Ecology and Fantasy Fiction: Morris, Tolkien, Le Guin

(Hardback)

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Description

Examining books by William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ursula K. Le Guin, three of the most influential writers of the modern fantasy tradition, this book explores how fantasy writers engage with forest ecologies, histories and futures both real and imagined at a time when fantasies of a more sustainable society must be realised.

Focusing on themes of escape, enchantment, experiment and engagement, this book demonstrates the significance of forest environments in the fantastic imagination, brings together ecocritical and fantasy scholarship in conversation with the environmental and social sciences, and examines the ways in which the fantastic imagination may be used as a creative form of environmental engagement today.

Reviews

A carefully researched, wide-ranging and insightful ecocritical study of the forests created by three major fantasy authors. -- Matthew Sangster, Professor of Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History, University of Glasgow, UK
This book has a number of brilliant insights, creating a dialogue among several fantasy classics and showing how fantasy and imagination are crucial spaces for reimagining our relationship with nature and recovering wonder. It also opens literary criticism to interdisciplinary conversations, especially in bringing concepts from biology, ecology and other fields of natural sciences. -- Marek Oziewicz, Professor and Director of the Center for Climate Literacy, University of Minnesota, USA

Author Bio

Dion Dobrzynski is a literature scholar working in the field of environmental humanities, interested in the relationship between literature and ecology from the nineteenth century to the present and interdisciplinary approaches to environmental pedagogy.