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List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Academic Contributors List of Artists Introduction: The choice we have in the stories we tell Marek Oziewicz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA Part I. Trouble in the Air Anthropos and the Air Brian Attebery, Idaho State University, USA . From the Third Age to the Fifth Season: confronting the Anthropocene through fantasy Brian Attebery Who knows where the time goes? / Nisi Shawl, author, editor and journalist Playing with the trouble: children and the Anthropocene in Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch series / Lindsay Burton, University of Cambridge, UK Rewrite / Katherine Applegate, author Staying with the singularity: nonhuman narrators and more-than-human mythologies Alexander Popov, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Bulgaria The eye of the story Joseph Bruchac -- Nokidahozid, author Fantasy for the Anthropocene: on the ecocidal unconscious, planetarianism, and imagination of biocentric futures Marek Oziewicz AstroNuts , the origin story Jon Scieszka, author -- Part II. Dreaming the Earth Anthropos and the Earth Brian Attebery Embodying the permaculture story: Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series / Tereza Dedinová, Masaryk University, Czechia Where is the place for seagrass and weevils in children's literature? / Eliot Schrefer, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA Arboreal magic and kinship in the Chthulucene: Margaret Mahy's trees / Melanie Duckworth Just imagine / Barbara Henderson, author From portable landscapes to themed thrill rides: Rowling's heterotopic hopescapes / Stephanie Weaver, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA Does 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, UK Celebrations of resilience / Elin Kelsey, author and scholar -- Part III: Visions in the Water Anthropos and the Ocean / Brian Attebery, Kim Stanley Robinson's case for hope in New York / John Rieder, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA Myth makes us see / Adam Gidwitz, author Sleeping with the fishmen: reimagining the Anthropocene through oceanic-chthonic kinships / Prema Arasu, University of Western Australia, Australia and Drew Thornton, Curtin University, USA Fish Girl's dilemma / Donna Jo Napoli, author From culture hero to emissions zero: critiquing Maui's extractivist mindset in Disney's Moana / Christopher D. Foley, University of Southern Mississippi, USA Finding balance and hope in the Indigenous past / David Bowles, author Reimagining youth relations with Moananuiakea (The large, expansive ocean): contemporary Niuhi Mo'lelo (man-eating shark stories) and environmental activism / Caryn Kunz Lesuma, Brigham Young University, USA The future that has yet to be imagined / Shaun Tan, artist writer and film maker -- Part IV: 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, University of North Georgia, USA Reimaging the upright ape / Jane Yolen, author Myths 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, USA On monsters and other matters of housekeeping:reading Jeff Vander Meer with Donna Haraway and Ursula K. Le Guin / Kim Hendrickx, University of Leuven, Belgium The seriousness of writing funny Molly B. Burnham, author Literalizing hyperobjects: on (mis)representing global warming in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones Markus Laukkanen, Tampere University, Finland -- Index. "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"
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