Stories in Crisis: radical imagination in environmental film and media

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This interdisciplinary research proposal addresses the need for critical engagement withnarrative and storytelling, essential for understanding representations of ecological crisis(DeLoughrey, 2019). Whether our stories are about microplastics, Greta Thunberg orloss of indigenous ways of life, 'we compulsively create [stories] around everything andanything' (Marshall, 2014, p.96). However, although we're living in 'the most importantyears in history' (IPCC, 2018), the magnitude of our environmental crisis has been slowto penetrate public consciousness, signalling a failure of communication processes(Penrhyn Jones, 2019). Against a possibility of wholescale loss and existential risk(Spratt and Dunlop, 2017 [2018]) environmental stories are themselves in crisis.Postcolonialism and poststructuralism demand sensitivity to 'the politics of specificity'(Gregory et al, 2009). However, the specificity of place, vulnerability and even culpabilitymay be subsumed by the totalising story of the anthropocene, spanning deep time andthe whole world (Penrhyn Jones, 2019).This planned research explores the inherent connection between progressive, inclusiveand ecological values; develops an analytical framework for understanding how radicalimagination is communicated and/or embodied in environmental documentary andalternative media; and will result in traditional text-based scholarship, with threeaccompanying research films exploring and articulating the relevant debates.Research questions-When analysing environmental documentaries released in the 21st century, to what extentcan their stories and/or storytelling process be defined as 'radical'?-How do postcolonial, critical race and feminist theories complicate and enhance thisdebate?-How is the radical imagination of environmental stories enabled or limited by specificmedia forms, their creative conventions, and production processes?