01 TF3 CAC 12168 MANGHARAM HC-S120
How does the study of postcolonial literatures help us understand the impact of colonialism on our planetary climate? After all, the extractive and finance capitalism that continues to devastate our planet was forcibly spread all over the world through colonialism, carrying with it hierarchical ideas about the way humans relate to the world, their environments, and to each other. If our planetary climate crisis has its roots in colonialism, how can postcolonial texts that challenge colonialism offer us alternative frameworks through which to relate to our planet? Can they lead us to the models that can critique and dismantle harmful cultural separations between humans, between the human and animal, and between the human and their ecosystems? Can they provide us with a vocabulary that speaks in terms of shared planetary concerns? To examine these questions, we will turn to writers in English from Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Americas and examine how they represent threats to the planet and theorize ways out of it. Texts will include Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse, Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People, Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas, and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass among others.