Call for Fables
Do you know any fable which speaks to a contemporary issue?
We’d love to hear from you.
The AHRC networking project ‘Rethinking Fables in the Age of Environmental Crisis’ invites you to
suggest a fable which speaks to environmental issues and the other global challenges confronting us.
Please write to me, Kaori Nagai, at [email protected] with your suggestion; tell me your selected
fable, along with a short explanation of why you have chosen it and how it resonates with a
contemporary issue you feel strongly about. The fable can be from any cultural or linguistic
background. You are most welcome to retell or make changes to your chosen fable, to make it more
fitting to the issue you’d like to address. You can invent a new fable too, inspired one you know or any
issues you are interested in exploring.
If you are unsure whether your chosen story counts as a fable, or if you have any other questions,
please don't hesitate to let me know at the above e-mail address.
About us: Launched in June 2023, we are a network of people interested in fables, nonhumans, and
multispecies storytelling. We are committed to engaging with fables innovatively, and to exploring our
relations to nonhumans and to each other in this rapidly changing world. We are particularly
passionate about the fable as a literary form with a unique focus on nonhuman characters. While
traditionally told to impart wisdom to humans, fables carve out a space dedicated to nonhuman beings.
They are to be taken seriously if we are to rethink our relationship with nonhuman worlds. Fables are
also used to satirise politics and power dynamics, portraying humans as animals. What better way is
there to explore the vulnerability we share with nonhumans in the face of global political and
environmental crises? Fables are also a perfect medium to explore our relationship with digital and
virtual technologies, including AIs as new talking nonhumans.
Most importantly, the fable has a long global history. Because they follow human movements, similar
fables recur in many places, and they continue to forge historical and cultural connections. To tell a
fable is also to have a conversation with future generations who will undoubtedly be telling and
retelling the same fables, and we hope to be able to pass on a better human and nonhuman world to
them just as we pass on our fable tradition. We’d be delighted if you could join our conversations, and
we look forward to hearing from you.
Dr. Kaori Nagai
Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature, University of Kent, UK
Principal Investigator: ‘Rethinking Fables in the Age of Environmental Crisis’ (June 2023-May 2025)
Webpage: https://research.kent.ac.uk/rethinking-fables/ E-mail:
[email protected]