Sofia Ahlberg, Magic, Literature and Climate Pedagogy in a Time of Ecological Crisis (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024) 147 pp. £81.00 Hb. ISBN: 9781350401143
Sofia Ahlberg’s Magic, Literature and Climate Pedagogy in a Time of Ecological Crisis is a reimagination of the typical classroom as a launchpad (literally – her concluding chapter imagines the students and teachers viewing the Earth from a spaceship) for creative disruptors equipped to tackle the daunting challenges posed by climate change.
Despite Ahlberg’s use of the image of astronaut learners and teachers ‘outside the malign influence of circumstance and precedent’ (132) on Earth, in her estimation, technological wizardry alone will not meet climate challenges. Ahlberg rejects the idea of the magic wand, for example, which she sees as tied to the idea of ‘unrealistic expectations for instant and effortless solutions’ (110). Ahlberg instead emphasises the need for personal growth and an openness to learning from and with others as a catalyst for global transformation by examining a wide range of fantasy novels, including those written for children or teenagers, that she sees as appropriate stimuli for effecting educational change.
For Ahlberg, to ‘collaboratively care for our ravaged world’ (8) will require the nurturing of a ‘community [that is] very broad, involving fostering agency to facilitate belonging with the human and more-than-human world’ (8-9). Ahlberg embraces the ‘more-than-human’ in its broadest sense; citing ‘the incomprehensible noise the rocks emit’ (31) in Marianne Dreams, Ahlberg acknowledges that they ‘seem to have their own plans that may even be at odds with those of modern humans’ (31). This realisation of the intrinsic value and even agency of the ‘more-than-human’ will require ‘humility so as to practise the necessary openness towards these new relations with other life forms’ (118).
Magic, Literature and Climate Pedagogy in a Time of Ecological Crisis draws on diverse scholarly sources and an unusually wide collection of representative works of fiction in English, providing appeal for scholars and readers from different disciplines and with different interests. Those well-versed in children’s, YA and fantasy and speculative literature are likely to appreciate the originality of the connections she makes between works widely separated by time, audience, and subject matter. For example, she draws an analogy between the sprinkling of ‘fairy dust’ to effect magical change in Peter Pan with ‘spores … resulting in physical symptoms that profoundly affect … cognition’ in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, published in 2014.
For those seeking a manual for classroom use, Ahlberg intersperses within the text ‘Try this’ sections, which provide practical exercises for teachers. From my own experience in mainstream state sector secondary school classrooms in England, these exploratory, values-based exercises are likely to be difficult to implement in literature lessons, tied as they have been for decades to Government-imposed data-based quantifiable outcomes. However, for those working in schools which are more flexible in their approaches, or who can persuade school leaders to allow some time for experimental pedagogy which goes beyond the radical work of Ivan Illich, Paulo Friere and Rita Felski, the exercises could provide a way for both teachers and students to challenge existing educational paradigms. Also, although Ahlberg presents the activities as resulting from the reading of the books she profiles, many of them could be used in relation to other subjects, such as Environmental Studies (‘If you could say thank you to the trees, what would you thank the trees for? [46]) or Dance/Drama (‘Be aware of your hands, what they are doing. What are the hands aware of?’ [105]).
The third and fourth chapters of the body of the book move beyond Ahlberg’s earlier focus on works written for children and teenagers. She embraces feminist and Indigenous scholarship, engaging with issues that apply to books aimed at adult readers, even if, like Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, these works include young adult characters. The title of the third chapter, ‘Feminist Witchcraft against Techno-Oppression’, gives an indication of the breadth of scope of her work. Ahlberg’s willingness to engage with recent developments in large language models takes the reader outside of what could be seen as traditional, Nature-based ecocriticism. By bringing together scholars, readers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds, she demonstrates within the text itself the ‘collective and spacious efforts of the cohort’ (129) for which she is calling.
Despite the disparate subject matter it covers, Magic, Literature and Climate Pedagogy in a Time of Ecological Crisis is given structure by following two roughly chronological tracks simultaneously. As previously stated, the books profiled are generally ordered to follow the lifetime of a reader. Also, the core chapters are arranged according to the publication dates of these works, beginning with Half Magic, The Children of Green Knowe, and Marianne Dreams in the 1950s, and concluding with Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (2020). The diversity of the texts chosen does create the odd jarring note. For example, those familiar with Edward Eager’s Half Magic, published in 1954, will know that it contains offensive racial stereotypes, with which Ahlberg does not engage. This seems contrary to the message she wishes to send later in the book about the rejection of a ‘Eurocentric perspective’ (125) in favour of ‘Indigenous culture [which] will lead the way’ (129) after discussing Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Noopiming. In a relatively short book, not every issue that arises from every text can be addressed, but future research could examine the extent to which any positive lessons about empowerment derived from these works are undercut by dehumanising stereotypes or contradictory messages.
Overall, Magic, Literature and Climate Pedagogy in a Time of Ecological Crisis is a hopeful book. It calls for us to reach out, not only to other people of all backgrounds and experiences, but to ‘local and global species at multiple scales’ (135). Ahlberg presents the powers exhibited by those touched by, and wielding, fictional magic as metaphors for the human ability to explore radical possibilities as individuals and as communities. Magic, Literature and Climate Pedagogy in a Time of Ecological Crisis expresses the conviction that these possibilities will take magic out of the realm of fantasy to create a new, shared, and better reality for all.
Georgina Kosanovic, Regent High School, London
