Abstract
The feminist movement is ever transforming because it challenges the injustices continually practiced against women. A vital part of the movement is ecofeminism, which addresses issues surrounding the degradation of both women and nature. According to eco-feminist theory, patriarchal societies consist of a culture/nature dualism in which culture and males are both valued: culture is valued for itself, and males are as being associated with culture. Conversely, females are associated with nature, and both of them are devalued. Eco-feminist literary criticism, which is a part of ecocriticism, involves analyzing a work by focusing on gender and/or race oppression, oppressed identities and their correlation with subjugation of the natural world. This paper aims at examining the eco-feminist aspects in Michelle Cliff’s quasi-autobiographical novel, Abeng (1990). The focus is on identifying how the female protagonists interact with their surrounding world. Cliff highlights the struggles that females face when trying to make their voices heard, identities recognized and to perform tasks equal to men. The importance of showcasing women authors who write from an eco-feminist perspective is that it proclaims that societies in which females are treated as equals to males will be in accord with nature.
Highlights
In contemporary societies, there has been a growing global concern for the sustainability of human life on Earth, brought on by the exhaustion of natural resources and the intensification of global warming
A vital part of the movement is eco-feminism, which addresses issues surrounding the degradation of both women and nature
Patriarchal societies consist of a culture/nature dualism in which culture is valued, and males associated with culture are valued too
Summary
There has been a growing global concern for the sustainability of human life on Earth, brought on by the exhaustion of natural resources and the intensification of global warming. From a post-colonial eco-feminist perspective, Cliff depicts the relationship between one’s identity and the land in which one resides or calls “home.” When writing about her homeland, Cliff “attempts to construct narratives that map the history of black, white, and mulatto Jamaica, mixing genres of narrative-historical, autobiographical, and myth--to achieve a dialectical representation of the West Indian experience" Clare obtains insight into her true self when she meets Zoe, who becomes her best girlfriend Examining their friendship through the post-colonial eco-feminism lens reveals that because they are of different colors and classes, they are not judged the same by society. They share the same geographical location, Jamaica, their places in it are in opposition to each other.
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