Cosmic Landscapes: Daoism and Environmentalism in Ursula K. Le Guin's Utopian Fictions

Abstract

This study looks at how Ursula K. Le Guin’s utopian fiction, represented by The Dispossessed (1974) and Always Coming Home (1985) uses Daoism to challenge the traditions of the genre of utopian literature and to present an environmental ethos for the future. This study considers these novels alongside classic Daoist texts, as well as recent scholarly writings on Daoism in relation to ecology, to explore how the tradition informs Le Guin’s ecological vision. I show how these representations engage the reader to question and resist established ideas of the relationship between human beings and nature. Within this context, I argue that Le Guin makes use of the strategy of cognitive estrangement to allow readers to identify and consequently analyze established norms from alternative perspectives.