Ecophobic Rhetorics in Ma Jian's The Dark Road and Sefi Atta's

Kalejaiye, Oluwakemi Abiola; Adebanjo, Niyi

doi:10.21608/misj.2024.293649.1061

Ecophobic Rhetorics in Ma Jian's The Dark Road and Sefi Atta's "News From Home"

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

10.21608/misj.2024.293649.1061

Abstract

The contestation of world economies and the trappings of geopolitics coupled with First Worldism in the current postmodern agenda offer a viable operation site for the various scientific and industrial inventions worldwide. Whether from Tokyo, Beijing, Washington D.C, Johannesburg, or Lagos man’s so-called giant strides in architectural designs and technology keep reminding us of how much harm has been done to nature. Adopting a critical textual analysis within the context of Ecocritical theory, this paper seeks to explore The Dark Road (2012) by Ma Jian, and Sefi Atta’s short story “News From Home” (2010), as a direct response to the challenges of the environmental degradation in the face of burgeoning economic order and globalization. The study contextualizes the challenging experiences of China and Nigeria on issues of environmental degradation as both countries struggled with man-made disasters. Beyond this, this paper highlights the devaluation of the environment in global cities and the apocalyptic warnings such human action portends. Findings reveal that humanity has eroded the quality of nature by engaging in activities that plunder natural landscapes. The study further revealed the contradictions and odds against the operation of industrialization; besides the fact that it makes the environment toxic for living, it also hampers our capitalist tradition which is retrogressive to conservation. In all, the novelists’ ecocentric stance is not only discursive of vulnerability of 21^st century social environment, but also indicative of the ecoglobal perspective of contemporary Nigerian and Chinese novelists.

Keywords

globalization: environmental degradation: Nigeria: China

Full Text

Oluwakemi Abiola Kalejaiye Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogiun State, Nigeria where she completed her doctoral research in Comperative Literature. She has published in local and international journals. Her current research focuses on trauma and mental health in Contemporary Nigerian Literature.

Niyi Adebanjo Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer, poet and playwright is the author of poems, plays and scholarly essays in local and international journeys. He has at various times served as head of English Department in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. His research interest includes dramatic literature, film studies and literally theory.

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