| Re-inhabiting Fantasy: Finding a Place for Isengard, Narnia, and Hogwarts in the Anthropocene, examines representations of environmental crisis in fantasy literature. Using an environmentally-focused thematic approach, the dissertation seeks to use fantasy as a vehicle for exploring the Anthropocene and resolutions to the Anthropocene present in fantasy literature through the form of ecological heterotopias, moving literature from the sole role of producing eco-literacy pieces to establishing readers as activists.. This project not only provides further analysis within the discourse of the Anthropocene, but also brings fantasy literature into the critical conversation of environmental theory.;Through this analysis of environmental landscapes in this sub-genre of fiction, I argue that although there are many proposed terms for the Anthropocene, the geological "age of man," my establishment of the term "Industrialocene," meaning the "age of industry," succinctly defines the ecological moment of current environmental crisis. This establishment of a new term for the geological age provides another angle to the established conversation surrounding the Anthropocene. Entering the current Environmental humanist conversation on the Anthropocene, I further explore how fantasy literature both narrates environmental crisis, and also establishes solutions through the employment of ecological heterotopias, or landscapes that converge human advancement and innovation with non-human preservation of the landscape. In order to conceptualize the heterotopic nature of the landscapes, I further explore the use of magic in fantasy literature, separating its identity from the mythic and the mystic.;This project has sought to provide more concrete discussions on how five of the most well-known and prolific fantasy literature authors --- J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, China Mieville, and Lev Grossman --- comment on environmental crisis. The project informs scholarly discourse on the Anthropocene by arguing that these texts offer a solution to the crisis imposed by the Anthropocene instead of prescribing to the Post-human alternative. This analysis will not only contribute to the development of ecocritical theory, but also expands the scope of fantasy literary criticism. |
