Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper problematizes the anthropocentrism that dominates critical responses to Yvonne Vera’s Butterfly Burning (1998). It considers how Vera inscribes colonial issues within the landscape and emplaces nature in decolonial thought. Contrary to claims that most African writers have resisted the ecocritical paradigm, I argue that writers such as Vera exhibit an environmental consciousness. In my reading, I focalize the everyday experiences of ordinary people as they relate to nature in the wake of colonial modernity. While colonialism was dehumanizing to black people, Vera underscores the environmental injustice and capitalist phallocracy that undergirds it. The paper draws from and builds on the growing body of work on postcolonial ecocriticism, suggesting that postcolonial and ecocritical discourses canproductively enrich each other in deconstructing toxic modernities.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have