Aparna Sivasankar
Doctoral Student in Creative Writing - Aparna’s thesis is entitled Fantasies for the Anthropocene: Religion and Ecology in Contemporary Fantasy Fiction from the Indian Subcontinent'
Research Project Title:
Fantasies for the Anthropocene: Religion and Ecology in Contemporary Fantasy Fiction from the Indian Subcontinent
Supervisors:
Prof Alex Pheby and Dr Stacy Gillis
Contact Details:
Email: a.sivasankar2@newcastle.ac.uk
Research Interests:
- Contemporary fantasy and science fiction
- Speculative fiction from the Global South
- Ecocriticism
- Postcolonial studies
- Religious and Social Identities
- Myths, fables and fairy tales
Brief Outline of Research Project:
My project examines the influence of polytheistic belief systems in India, focusing on how ecosystems are positioned within these traditions. My creative work of four ecofantasy novellas explores how the relationship between individuals, cultures and the ecosystem can be reconfigured to present ecocentric alternatives to capitalist and anthropocentric worldviews. My critical work uses an ecocritical postcolonial framework to examine representations of human-nature interactions in contemporary fantasy fiction from the Indian subcontinent.