Nature and the Numinous in Mythopoeic Fantasy Literature

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In Nature and the Numinous in Mythopoeic Fantasy Literature, Chris Brawley engages ecocriticism and fantasy literature by applying Rudolf Otto's concept of the numinous—“as an indescribable feeling that gives one a sense of awe”—to fantasy (1). While Otto's original description was religious, Brawley contends that the numinous does not need to be theistic. Instead, this mystical, defining quality of fantasy reengages readers with the wonder of our reality. Throughout this book, Brawley uses the numinous to explore several fantasy texts, arguing that it leads readers to reshape and challenge normative perceptions of the natural world. In order to support this claim of fantasy's environmental usefulness, Brawley places his theory in the midst of fantasy criticism. He focuses his ecocritical idea of the numinous on the works of mythopoeic authors, who employ “fantasy as a subversive mode of literature to revise our perceptions of the natural world” (9). He also engages canonical environmental texts such as Lynn White's “The Historical Roots of Our Environmental Crisis.” Many of the works that Brawley analyzes directly oppose White's thesis; their authors attempt, instead, to reimagine relationships with nature through the numinous. For this reason, while Brawley contends that the numinous need not be theistic, much of his analysis still focuses on the works of Christian fantasy authors. He analyzes works by Samuel Coleridge, George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Algernon Blackwood, and Ursula Le Guin, proposing that they give “us a new language to encounter the natural world around us in a new way through experiences which awaken our sense of awe, humility, and respect for the mystery which finally transcends both ourselves and our world” (188).