Dystopian Ecologies: Thinking about South African Ecocriticism through a Comparative Reading of Henrietta Rose-Innes’s Green Lion and Alettie van den Heever’s Stof [Dust]
Abstract
This article explores the notion of a South African ecocriticism by firstly placing it against the background of the ongoing debates about the relationship between postcolonialism and ecocriticism and secondly by situating it within the context of African ecocriticism. It points out the most important characteristics of South African ecocriticism, focusing on the impact of South Africa’s colonial history on environmental matters, the subsequent entanglement of environmental with social matters as well as the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity. The “dynamism and contingency” (Wylie 2006: 266) typical of South African ecocriticism is further considered by a comparative reading of two recent South African novels that present dystopian views of a future environment, Henrietta Rose Innes’s English novel Green Lion (2015), which deals with animal extinction, and Alettie van den Heever’s Afrikaans novel Stof [Dust] (2018), which focuses on plant extinction.
Opsomming
Hierdie artikel ondersoek die nosie van ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse ekokritiek deur dit eerstens te plaas teen die agtergrond van debatte oor die verhouding tussen die post kolonialisme en ekokritiek en tweedens deur dit te situeer binne die konteks van ‘n Afrika ekokritiek. Daar word gewys op die belangrikste eienskappe van ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse ekokritiek deur te fokus op die impak wat Suid Afrika se koloniale geskiedenis gehad het op die omgewing, die verstrengeldheid van omgewingsake met sosiale kwessies en die land se talige en kulturele diversiteit. Die “dinamiek en toevalligheid” (Wylie 2006: 266) tipies van die Suid Afrikaanse ekokritiek word verder ondersoek deur ‘n vergelykende lesing van twee onlangse Suid Afrikaanse romans wat distopiese perspektiewe op ‘n toekomstige wereld gee, Henrietta Rose Innes se Engelse roman Green Lion (2015), wat onder andere handel oor die uitsterf van sekere dierespesies, en Alettie van den Heever se Afrikaanse roman Stof (2018), wat fokus op die uitsterf van plant spesies.
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