AN EXAMINATION OF THE REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE IN THE SHORT STORIES OF AWARD WINNING ZAMBIANS

Alex Simpande

doi:10.46827/ejls.v2i2.227

Abstract

The short story scene of award winners in Zambia is dominated by female writers. Chicken, by Efemia Chela, was nominated for the Caine Prize for African writing in 2014. A Hand to Hold, by Mali Kambandu, won the 2018 Kalemba Prize, a local award for Zambian writers. The Sack, by Namwali Serpell, won the Caine Prize in 2015 and Madam’s Sister, by Mbozi Haimbe, was the African regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019. Studies between literature and the physical environment have become an area of interest for many writers. Following the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014) and Agenda 2030, this study examines the representations of nature and ecocritical issues in the works of four award winning Zambian short story writers. Using the model by Glotfelty (1996), the examination addresses two issues (1) how nature is represented in four award winning short stories (2) the ecocritical issues raised in the short stories. Through a qualitative, textual analysis of the short stories, the findings highlight contributions that literature by Zambian writers can make towards the discourse on sustainability issues and raise awareness about nature and environmental concerns of the 21st century.   Article visualizations:<img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0790/a.php" alt="Hit counter" />

Highlights

Ecocriticism has been divided into first and second waves where the first wave was preoccupied with the environment as nature as an entity itself and defending it (Buell, 1995) while the second wave (Bressler, 1999) sees nature and human dwellings as interdependent
Ecocriticism looks at how texts portray environmental concerns and how nature is treated in the texts
Contrary to certain perceptions that African literature has not added much to the discourse on ecocriticism, this paper is of the opinion that literature by Africans and especially Zambian writers does perceive ecocriticism and incorporates it in their works

Summary

Introduction

Ecocriticism has been divided into first and second waves where the first wave was preoccupied with the environment as nature as an entity itself and defending it (Buell, 1995) while the second wave (Bressler, 1999) sees nature and human dwellings as interdependent. As a theoretical movement that began in the 1990s, ecocriticism seeks to address among other issues the need for concerted efforts to tackle climate and destruction of the environment through ecological theory and tools of literary analysis. Literary texts give us the pleasures of the natural world, they demonstrate how human beings use and interact with nature. The current study realizes, among other key approaches, the influence of psychoanalytic theory, postmodern approaches and the historical approaches in an attempt to understand a text. Beyond these realizations, noted African writers such as Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong’o have shown in their works that there is an obvious interrelation between nature and human beings. The works may not mention ecocriticism as a concept, but the content speaks for itself

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Conclusion