Zitationsvorschlag
Lizenz (Kapitel)
Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.
Identifier (Buch)
Veröffentlicht
Writing the ‘Terrestrial’: Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes of Longing and the Postcolonial Environment
ABSTRACT Human exploitation and development of the planet has jeopardized the existence of other species in the form of climate change, rising temperature, and loss of habitats. These problems not only urge for a reassessment of human claims of the planet but also raise the issue of how one must write the environment into literature to render it the form of power that it has attained in the age of the Anthropocene. This contribution focuses on Indian English writer Shubhangi Swarup’s debut novel Latitudes of Longing, which constructs natural environment as an active force and unifies human and non-human entities to reorient the relationship between humans and environment. Her experimental style interconnecting four different stories challenges the anthropocentric leaning of fiction to privilege the agency of the planet. This paper borrows from Bruno Latour’s concept of the ‘terrestrial’ to examine how Swarup’s novel envisions a relationship between the human and non-human forces.
KEYWORDS climate fiction, environmental agency, Latitudes of Longing, non-human, Shubhangi Swarup
