Postcolonial and Ecocritical Approaches to Contemporary Fiction: Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide, Imbolo Mbue's How Beautiful We Were and Tara June Winch's The Yield

Historically, the critical fields of ecocriticism and post-colonialism have had different interests and aims. More recently, though, critics from both camps have recognized common ground and shared agendas. (Post-)colonial displacement, migration and exploitation are now seen in the context of places and spaces in which people live and act, while the relationship between humans and the non-human world can often only be thoroughly analysed by considering the underlying neo-colonial, capitalist power structures. In the course, we will read some theory and two (or three) novels set on different continents (Asia, Africa, Australia) and in different historical situations with the aim to learn how the two discourses, eco and poco, are mutually enriching and necessary tools for the analysis of postcolonial environmental fiction. Set texts are Amitav Ghosh (2004), The Hungry Tide, Imbolo Mbue (2021), How Beautiful We Were (plus, for MA-students, Tara June Winch [2019], The Yield). Please buy the books and start reading as soon as you can!