“Green Studies for the Red Planet? A lesson from the past”

In a period when the Earth has procured a one-way ticket to her own ecological destruction, Green Cultural Studies cannot ignore the great planetary movement revolving around Mars exploration and its much sought-after colonization. This is an issue which is rooted in ethics even before economics and politics, and it directly questions our responsibilities as global citizens. This chapter takes into account the literature of the United States at the end of the 19th century, where one finds some surprisingly interesting utopian novels which not only describe a fascinating Martian vegetation, but also show alien races that appear much more respectful of the environment than humans. I find this particularly stimulating since the ways Mars is described intertwine with (eco)feminism, postcolonialism, and globalization. Te analysis of these works will help us to better understand the highly symbolic, social, and political values of this early production concerning Mars, while problematizing our own vision of Earth ecology in the present time.