Naturalizing Africa
eBook - PDF

Naturalizing Africa

Ecological Violence, Agency, and Postcolonial Resistance in African Literature

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Naturalizing Africa

Ecological Violence, Agency, and Postcolonial Resistance in African Literature

About this book

The problem of environmental degradation on the African continent is a severe one. In this book, Cajetan Iheka analyzes how African literary texts have engaged with pressing ecological problems in Africa, including the Niger Delta oil pollution in Nigeria, ecologies of war in Somalia, and animal abuses. Analyzing narratives by important African writers such as Amos Tutuola, Wangari Maathai, J. M. Coetzee, Bessie Head, and Ben Okri, Iheka challenges the tendency to focus primarily on humans in the conceptualization of environmental problems, and instead focuses on how African literature demonstrates the interconnection and 'proximity' of human and nonhuman beings. Through this, Iheka ultimately proposes a revision of the idea of agency based on human intentionality in African literary studies and postcolonialism: that texts yoke the exploitation of Africans to the despoliation of the environment, and they recommend responsibility toward human and nonhuman beings as crucial for ecological sustainability and addressing climate change.

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Yes, you can access Naturalizing Africa by Cajetan Iheka in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & African History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Reviews
  3. Half-title page
  4. Title page
  5. Copyright page
  6. Dedication
  7. Contents
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Introduction: Naturalizing Africa
  10. 1 African Literature and the Aesthetics of Proximity
  11. 2 Beyond Human Agency: Nuruddin Farah and Somalia’s Ecologies of War
  12. 3 Rethinking Postcolonial Resistance: The Niger Delta Example
  13. 4 Resistance from the Ground: Agriculture, Gender, and Manual Labor
  14. Epilogue: Rehabilitating the Human
  15. Notes
  16. Works Cited
  17. Index