Imagination at the progressive border: can fantasy literature foster a liminal space for social justice-oriented narrative-based belief change in the individual?

Contemporary scholars such as Baker (2012), Bould (2002), Dalton (2019), Grifka-Wander (2019) and Trębicki (2011) have discussed how fantasy literature responds to the time in which it is created and the way in which it can introduce ideas about progressive change. Drobot (2019) also suggests that fantasy novels help us think about the past and how societal beliefs and values have changed and can still change. All of the aforementioned argue that fantasy stories can lead to shifts in what individuals and society believe.

In spite of these arguments, however, there is still a gap in researching how fantasy literature, specifically, can profoundly change readers and groups of readers. This current research, therefore, examines how fantasy novels create a space for readers to reflect and imagine. By getting lost in these stories and encountering new ways of thinking, fantasy readers can challenge their existing beliefs and imagine new possibilities for themselves and the world. This research explores how fantasy narratives help readers imagine “what if” scenarios, challenging their existing ideas and offering new perspectives on themselves and the world.

To investigate if this interaction with fantasy stories inspires people to make positive changes in the real world, this research focuses on modern examples of how fantasy literature motivates individuals and groups to take action for social causes. In addition, this study employed a qualitative mixed methodology, conducting thirty interviews with fantasy readers and authors of fantasy literature through a two-phase approach to address this question.

From these interviews, several recurring themes were found. In the first phase, fantasy readers described how they felt transported into the story world and how fantasy stories can introduce its readers to social justice themes. In the second phase, new themes emerged, such as: how fantasy readers feel when they finish a book, how young adult fantasy books often harbour messages about social justice, the relative importance or status of diversity and social justice in the publishing industry and how gatekeeping influences the potential for fantasy literature to change people’s beliefs.

These findings not only generated the key themes that are analysed in the thesis, but also led to the development of a new theory and model called the Reader’s Journey and the identification of a newly emergent subgenre of fantasy literature I have called Social Justice Fantasy. The research is concluded by discussing the study’s limitations and its implications for education, curriculum development and critical teaching methods.