A post-colonial ecocritical analysis of selected African texts: A case of lessing's the grass is singing and Mungoshi's waiting for the rain
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Date
2018
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University of Namibia
Abstract
This thesis analyses The Grass is Singing (1950) by Doris Lessing and Waiting for the Rain (1975) by Charles Mungoshi from a post-colonial ecocritical perspective. Ecocriticism unifies humanity and nature, whilst post-colonialism focuses on issues pertaining to power, religion and culture, with regards to humanity. The research aimed at elucidating on the remarkable relationship between human beings and nature as presented in literary texts. Applying post-colonialism to the analysis of a text calls for the inclusion and consideration of a number of themes such as; race, class, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, religion, identity, double consciousness, hybridity, rootlessness, trauma and relationships (master/servant). The study is a desktop qualitative research and it employed content analysis in the interpretation and analysis of the chosen novels. The study found that by reading The Grass is Singing (1950) and Waiting for the Rain (1975) as contemporaries, they can be testament to some wealthy accounts as the novels provide a coherent shape of the realistic operations of colonialism in totality. The Grass is Singing (1950) and Waiting for the Rain (1975) may be viewed as synchronous novels that expose the exclusive lives of both the coloniser and the colonised under colonialism, in relation to the environment. Both the coloniser and the colonised happen to be victims of colonialism as exhibited from both novels and how each contributed to environmental mortification. The study recommends that for future studies there may be need to consider the use of ecocriticism as a theory in the analysis of novels from different African countries or even other novels from Zimbabwe; using ecocriticism in genocidal literature; application of ecocriticism in other genres such as poetry, drama and media literature; as well as merging ecocriticism with other theories in the analysis of different literary works.
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Studies
Keywords
Ecocratical analysis