Environmental Postcolonialism

Reviews / Votes

To skeptics, "environmental postcolonialism" may seem like odd cognates, reflecting the desperate scramble of scholarly and scientific disciplines to appear green. Ostensibly, a prefix (environmentalism) is all it takes to do so. This collection of superb scholarship, however, rises far above this fad, arguing that ecocriticism in former colonies chronicles the ways in which colonialists robbed them of nature and culture.... The collection features 16 well-researched and well-written essays by early-career and established scholars. It encompasses environmental postcolonial scholarship from across Africa, the Americas, and Asia, and is equally diverse in its topical treatment, covering natural resources, place-based identities, gendered ecology, eco-consciousness, and capitalist predation of nature. In short, Environmental Postcolonialism makes a memorable contribution to an eponymous field, and to the literature on ecocriticism and postcolonial theory. Highly recommended. * Choice Reviews * [The] book has been able to provide an introductory roadmap to all enthusiastic scholars, students and avid readers of literature who are interested in studies in Ecocriticism, literary theory and postcolonial studies. In fact, the diverse range and structural formulation of the edited book makes it a practical exercise to be introduced in academic curriculum that includes contemporary theoretical topics like Ecocriticism, Posthumanism, postcolonial studies, indigenous studies, Animal studies and Anthropocene. The wide framework of the book also aims to mobilize its readers from conventional conceptions like anthropocentrism, speciesism, capitalism and imperialism; with an intention to engage humans with the world beyond Man. * Lamar Journal * Environmental Postcolonialism is a must read for those interested to know more about the intersection and intermeshing of ecocriticism and postcolonial studies. Drawing on a wide range of insights from across the world, the book delves into how colonialism devastated nature and environment as much as it destroyed the human component of former colonies. This is a much-needed critical intervention that investigates the epistemes of colonial legacy that became synonymous with the destruction of the world around us. A thought-provoking collection! -- Sami Ahmad Khan, author of Aliens in Delhi, Red Jihad, and Star Warriors of the Modern Raj Environmental Postcolonialism: A Literary Response is a extraordinary volume containing sixteen chapters written by seventeen different writers. The merit of the book lies in the multiplicity of literary narratives undertaken for applying the concept of environment and postcolonialism. In fact, it is one of the pioneer texts in the interdisciplinary concept of environment and postcolonialism. The book is an essential read for the students and scholars of Humanities, Literature, Social Sciences and their kind. -- Santhosh Bahadur Singh, Lady Irwin College Delhi University