Eco-Gendered Perspectives: Nature, Identity, and Power in Anita Rau Badami’s Novels
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Abstract
Recent advancements in literary studies highlight the significance of ecocriticism, green theory, and gender perspectives as frameworks for understanding the complex interplay between culture, power, and the environment. This essay focuses on two of Anita Rau Badami’s seminal works, Tell It to the Trees and Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Although Badami is celebrated for her nuanced explorations of history, migration, and familial bonds, her fiction simultaneously demonstrates a profound ecological and gendered conscience.
This study investigates how remote locations, specific flora, and natural landscapes serve as active forces that influence moral dilemmas, cultural identities, and emotional experiences rather than merely serving as static narrative settings. The interdependence of human existence and the environment is reinforced by nature acting as a “mute spectator” to human trauma, relocation, and violence. By applying an ecofeminist lens, the paper highlights the similarities between environmental exploitation and the patriarchal marginalization of women. The endurance, silence, and perseverance exhibited by female protagonists reflect the ways patriarchal frameworks govern both women’s bodies and natural spaces. Ecological displacement is shown to exacerbate feelings of alienation and vulnerability in diasporic environments, linking environmental loss with gendered distress. Ultimately, the paper illustrates how Badami’s novels challenge anthropocentrism by positioning land and nature as archives of memory and suffering. By emphasizing the relationship between gender, environment, and narrative representation, this ecocritical and gender-oriented reading adds to current discussions on new developments in language, literature, and culture.
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