Postcolonial ecocriticism
Author: Anna Kovalenko
Editor: Clemens Poole
Both ecocritical (green) studies and postcolonialism shed light on the uneven distribution of power between subjects, where the most amount of it is reserved, mostly in a violent manner, to certain dominating parties, while the ‘Others’ are left on the periphery. The present academic discourse in both fields attempts to challenge the human-centred system, with the belief that this can transform the order of things and, thus, lead to an approach that is more open than postulates of anthropocentrism. Speaking of our relations with plants and animals, one of the prominent ecocriticism scholars, Greta Gaard, believes this shift shall move humankind “from a humanist perspective of dominance to an awareness and participation in relations of mutuality” [1]. Postcolonial ecocriticism advocates for this too while also applying knowledge of the colonial past.
While some scholars, like Timothy Clark, may argue whether or not this concept itself shall keep the wording “postcolonial ecocriticism” [2], in terms of the Ukrainian context its usage proves useful. As it is relevant for the contemporary necessity of decolonising Ukrainian land from military occupation and facing the challenges of postcoloniality after full deoccupation. The wider usage of this idea in academia provides space for exploring the remnants of the Ukrainian state’s colonial past and the associated decolonisation processes in terms of their relatedness to nature and, namely, land — one of the crucial elements of the perception of the world and national identity for Ukrainians.
The term does not deal exclusively with the issue of the land as a manifestation of the material world, a physical entity — it also comprises the analyses of the importance of the notion of land as a sociocultural one in terms of cultural decolonisation and decolonisation of ideas and the system of knowledge about it. At the same time, in the actual reality of Ukraine, it is of utter importance to focus on the physical land and to define neo-colonial practices towards it and “the often flagrant human and environmental abuses that continue to be practiced” [3] by the occupiers. Thus, looking at the war through the postcolonial ecocritical lens shifts perspective in the Anthropocene context and takes land into consideration both as an integral component of the state and its colonial past, and as an element of the environment with its own agency. Many Ukrainian cultural activists and artists employ such a lens in their practices, bringing the focus back to nature's rights and value, as well as the Ukrainian nation’s right to its territory.
A compelling illustration of the application of such optics is the online panel discussion “Regeneration and Decolonial Transformation: Ukraine's Nature, Built Environment, and Art during Wartime”, which took place within the framework of the exhibition Decolonial Ecologies. Understanding Postcolonial after Socialism in Latvia in November 2022–January 2023. The conference gathered such Ukrainian artists and researchers as Alevtina Kakhidze, Darya Tsymbalyuk, Svitlana Matviyenko, and Dmytro Chepurnyi, and was moderated by Svitlana Biedarieva. The discussion explored the effects of the russian war [4] in Ukraine through occupation of the land, and human and more-than-human massive displacement (such as migration of animals due to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam). It also highlighted the necessity of finding mechanisms for resolving these hardships in order to regenerate resources and local ecosystems. Thus, an important result of the panel was the combination of artistic and academic paradigms in order to develop optimal mechanisms for the implementation of transformational processes for regenerating nature and the environment, specifically as decolonising processes. Such happenings demonstrate the will of Ukrainians to “explore how the nature-culture relationship in Ukraine acts as a moving force for resilience, stoicism, and reinvigoration in the face of ongoing violence and destruction” [5].
Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin, two theorists of the field, underline that “one of the central tasks of postcolonial ecocriticism” is contesting “western ideologies of development” [6]; while for Ukraine, the main objective is contesting the perception contained within the imperial ideology of the various formations of russian state, specifically as this perception applies to the Ukrainian land as well as defining and adopting ways of decolonising it. Thus, the term postcolonial ecocriticism engages two specific fields — and the space of their intersection gives us a wider canvas of productive meaning-making in terms of how postcolonial environments function through the lens of ecocritical ideas — and these considerations are indeed essential in the wartime.
Endnotes
02. Clark, Timothy. “‘Postcolonial Ecocriticism’... and Beyond?”. The Value of Ecocriticism, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 137-159.
03. Huggan, Graham, Tiffin, Helen. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment. (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 77.
04. "russia" and derived adjectives are intentionally used by the author in lowercase. This practice has been common in the Ukrainian mass media since February 24, 2022 – many sources use the name of the state and a possessive adjective derived from it in this way. In my opinion, this serves as a strategic mechanism in texts about postcolonialism as well as decolonising means. The idea is not new – the authors of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures: Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, proposed such linguistic practice as one of the ways of overcoming the remnants of a colonial way of thinking. Such usage of the name does not negate the fact of the existence of the different formations of russian state per se – it serves the purpose of demystifying its power by putting it out of the centre as compared to the “periphery” states and cultures.
05. “Online discussion: Regeneration and Decolonial Transformation”.
06. Huggan, Graham, Tiffin, Helen. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment. (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 27.
For further reference
Heise, Ursula K. “Postcolonial Ecocriticism and the Question of Literature”. Postcolonial Green: Environmental Politics and World Narratives, edited by Bonnie Roos, Alex Hunt. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010).
Huggan, Graham, Tiffin, Helen. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment. (London and New York: Routledge, 2011).
Author
Anna Kovalenko
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