Abstract:

With its magical geographies, enchanting elements, and characters, fantasy literature has discussed and presented many issues including nature. The writers employ nature to reinforce their magical plots. Even, nature sometimes appears as a character whose agency may direct the course of events. Besides, in fantasy literature, the writers create new myths where the beginning of life and the meaning of existence are questioned, re-imagined and re-created within the context of an extraordinary environment. Mythologies are closely concerned with nature and regarded as an attempt to make sense of the natural world humans belong to. In that sense, fantasy literature becomes much more significant for ecological studies. When we think of characters’ psychological states and emotional responses to natural elements and occurrences, the genre offers a remarkably suitable frame for us to analyse character-nature relations from an ecopsychological perspective. Ecopsychology, the common ground of ecology and psychology, underlines the strong interconnection between human psyche and nature. By putting emphasis on the significant role nature plays in fantastic literature, this article aims to offer a theoretical framework to display how fantastic literature can provide a fertile ground for ecopsychological literary analysis and understanding. Since ecopsychology is a broad field, the focus will be specifically placed on Jungian ecopsychology.

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