ABSTRACT
This general introduction provides a critical and theoretical foundation for the monograph. It presents the perspectives of ecopsychology and ecotherapy in the context in which they will be used in this book to explore Madeleine L’Engle’s literature and how they can be used to explore other children’s literature. This discussion includes the few references to a connection between ecopsychology/ecotherapy and children’s literature presented in scholarship. It briefly explores the scholarship on Madeleine L’Engle as well as on fantasy in general. It addresses the interconnectedness of the three series of novels that will be explored in later chapters: L’Engle’s Austin family series, O’Keefe family series, and Time series. It presents the concept of a continuum as used in this project and lays out the two most important continuums (human-nonhuman kinship and fantasy-reality) that emerge in L’Engle’s three series.
