Speculative Ecologies

Anxieties, Hierarchies, and Anarchies in the Natures of Speculative Fiction

Abstract

Ecological anxiety is an increasingly prominent response to environmental degradation, and one which often manifests within forms of fiction. Representations of nature in literature and film reveal the ways in which our society relates to nature, and, in turn, what the term “nature” means in the context of environmental crisis. Speculative fiction provides perhaps the widest potential spectrum for representing nature, in terms of the variety of forms nature can take. This essay, therefore, argues that speculative fiction­ is a production of nature, wherein nature is defined culturally, altering it in ways that reinforce or challenge the existing power structures that underly environmental crises. Positioning recent examples of speculative fiction within both literary and critical theory, the first portion of this essay highlights how invocations of nature metaphors can reinforce hierarchical and deterministic frameworks. The second portion of the essay presents opposing examples of fiction which challenge power structures using a variety of literary traditions to question and re-imagine the order of nature. Lastly, the essay situates the forms of nature depicted in speculative fiction at the intersection of a production of nature, human geography theory, and social ecology, putting often divergent theories in conversation with each other and revealing a framework for imagining, critically assessing, and re-imagining the ways in which speculative fiction produces nature.