Abstract
The analysis presented here focuses on the way the antithesis between the global and the local is approached from a literary point of view in the contemporary Indian context. Assuming an ecocritical perspective, it reinterprets literature on ecological themes as a tool to negotiate some spaces of autonomy from hegemonic models imposed by globalization on an economic, technological and cultural level. Global plans often collide with local ecosystems, upsetting their pre-existent equilibrium and always more frequently producing antagonism, resistance and overt conflicts. The claim for the management of local resources and the safeguard of traditional lore become a response to the “allegedly value-neutral global market” (Eaton / Lorentzen (eds.) (2003): Ecofeminism and Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context, and Religion. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 4). Filtering the discussion through an ecofeminist critique, it is possible to find a connection between the abuse of power that underlies human oppression and the exploitation of the environment. Women and nature are, in fact, connected in the dominant masculine discourse by the rhetoric of submission, which is harmful to both of them (Zimmerman, et al. (ed.) (1993): Environmental Philosophy: from Animal Rights to Radical Ecology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.; Warren / Cheney. (1991): “Ecological Feminism and Ecosystem Ecology”. Hypatia 6/1 Ecological Feminism: 179–197.). As an example of resistance strategy to these dynamics and a means to give voice to women through literature, this article proposes a critical reading of the novel Betvā bahtī rahī by Maitreyī Puṣpā (“The Betvā River was flowing”).
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Inhaltsverzeichnis – Table des Matières – Contents
- Natural Constraints to Cultural Relativism Example: Ricci’s Pacific-Centered World Maps
- It Is Only Gazouz: Muslims and Champagne in the Colonial Maghreb
- Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784–1817) – der Basler Orientreisende malgré lui und sein Besuch bei den Drusen im Gebiet des Mont-Liban
- Unfertige Studien 6: Der Brudermord des Kain aus theologischer Sicht
- Glocalization Narratives in Indian Literature and Cinema: An Introduction
- Becoming a Crorepati: From Glocal TV Game to Grobal Fiction
- Early ‘Glocalization’ in Indian Cinema: An Analysis of Films of Dada Saheb Phalke and Himanshu Rai
- Charulata 2011: Dramatizing the Glocal
- Seeing Kolkata: Globalization and the Changing Context of the Narrative of Bengali-ness in Two Contemporary Films
- A Queer Lack of Success. Discourses on Same-sex Love and Neoliberalism in the Hindi Novel Paṃkhvālī Nāv by Paṃkaj Biṣṭ
- Modern Durgas Fighting against the Demons of Globalization
- From Topophilia to Despair. Kashinath Singh’s Banaras Trilogy
- Book Reviews – Buchbesprechungen – Comptes Rendus
- Robyn Creswell: City of Beginnings: Poetic Modernism in Beirut
- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley and Huang, Shih-shan Susan: Visual and Material Cultures in Middle Period China
- Zaman, Muhammad Qasim: Islam in Pakistan: A History
- Ahrens, Tobias: Kampō. Einführung in die japanische Pflanzenheilkunde in 25 Fragen und Antworten
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Inhaltsverzeichnis – Table des Matières – Contents
- Natural Constraints to Cultural Relativism Example: Ricci’s Pacific-Centered World Maps
- It Is Only Gazouz: Muslims and Champagne in the Colonial Maghreb
- Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784–1817) – der Basler Orientreisende malgré lui und sein Besuch bei den Drusen im Gebiet des Mont-Liban
- Unfertige Studien 6: Der Brudermord des Kain aus theologischer Sicht
- Glocalization Narratives in Indian Literature and Cinema: An Introduction
- Becoming a Crorepati: From Glocal TV Game to Grobal Fiction
- Early ‘Glocalization’ in Indian Cinema: An Analysis of Films of Dada Saheb Phalke and Himanshu Rai
- Charulata 2011: Dramatizing the Glocal
- Seeing Kolkata: Globalization and the Changing Context of the Narrative of Bengali-ness in Two Contemporary Films
- A Queer Lack of Success. Discourses on Same-sex Love and Neoliberalism in the Hindi Novel Paṃkhvālī Nāv by Paṃkaj Biṣṭ
- Modern Durgas Fighting against the Demons of Globalization
- From Topophilia to Despair. Kashinath Singh’s Banaras Trilogy
- Book Reviews – Buchbesprechungen – Comptes Rendus
- Robyn Creswell: City of Beginnings: Poetic Modernism in Beirut
- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley and Huang, Shih-shan Susan: Visual and Material Cultures in Middle Period China
- Zaman, Muhammad Qasim: Islam in Pakistan: A History
- Ahrens, Tobias: Kampō. Einführung in die japanische Pflanzenheilkunde in 25 Fragen und Antworten