Nature vs. “Reality” in Fantasy Fiction: The Potential for Ecocritical Imaginings

Abstract

Despite being prominently associated with its supernatural qualities, nature also features prominently in fantasy fiction, an aspect of the genre that is often overlooked. Fantasy fiction developed as a genre in dialectical opposition to the Enlightenment and the realist novel, based on the binary oppositions of reason/supernatural and realism/supernatural. It is possible to add nature next to supernatural on the same side of these oppositions since reason/nature or culture/nature is another binary opposition that is fundamental to Western thought. Moreover, the realist novel dealt primarily with the urban environment relegating nature to the background. In this binary opposition, the realist novel was taken as mainstream, while fantasy fiction was viewed as popular literature. Although this changed after the mid-twentieth century, even a recent critic like Jameson, who argues for the importance of science fiction and utopia in creating a space for humanity to imagine different political alternatives to the all-encompassing late capitalism, dismisses fantasy fiction as regressive. In fact, fantasy fiction offers alternative, non-anthropocentric visions of the world. Not only does it disrupt reality and its assumed inevitability, providing an opportunity for subversive imagining, it portrays a world in which the non-human is essential. Thus, it has a unique potential for creating and inspiring more environmental ways of life. Tolkien and Le Guin both saw this potential and this paper discusses their theoretical arguments as well as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in terms of their ecocritical approach, connecting this with Jameson’s ideas on utopian space to put forward the ecocritical potential of fantasy fiction.