Ecofeminism and the Indian Novel

Ecofeminism and the Indian Novel
Author: Sangita Patil
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2019-07-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0429513267

Ecofeminism and the Indian Novel tests the theories of ecofeminism against the background of India’s often different perceptions of environmental problems, challenging the hegemony of Western culture in thinking about human problems. This book moves beyond a simple application of the concepts of ecofeminism, instead explaining the uniqueness of Indian novels as narratives of ecofeminism and how they can contribute to the development of the theory of ecofeminism. In examining a selection of novels, the author argues that Indian texts conceptualize the ecological crisis more as a human problem than as a gender problem. The book proposes that we should think of ecofeminism as ecohumanism instead, seeing human beings and nature as a part of a complex web. Novels analysed within the text include Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve (1954), Shivram Karanth’s Return to Earth (2002) and Na D’Souza’s Dweepa (2013). Ecofeminism and the Indian Novel will be of great interest to students and scholars of ecofeminism, ecocriticism, ecological feminism, environmental humanities, gender studies, ecological humanities, feminist studies and Indian literature.

Gift In Green

Gift In Green
Author: Sarah Joseph
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2013-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9350292645

An eco-spiritual search for light and life in a world inching towards dystopia Gift in Green, written originally in Malayalam, is a tantalizingly unconventional narrative that explores, on multiple levels, the pain and poetry that eventuate from the disruption of the intimate relationship between a people and their life-world, using water (the 'water-life' of the people of Aathi) as the overarching metaphor that mirrors the degradation of the society. Between the polarities of attachment and abandonment, darkness and light, predatory progress and the sheer will to survive, unfolds the saga of a people confronted by the behemoth of progress driven by Kumaran,who seeks to abandon water-life, threatening its very existence. But such is the author's faith in the resilience of life and nature and her belief in the futility of trying to control something as fluid and eternal as water-life that what promises to be the end is also the hope of a new beginning. This is the first instance in Indian literary history of a novel in a regional language being translated and published concurrently in English.

Nectar in a Sieve

Nectar in a Sieve
Author: Kamala Markandaya
Publisher: Ravenio Books
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2018-10-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

“This Is a Novel to Retain in Your Heart and Library” —Milwaukee Journal In the sun-baked fields of rural India, Rukmani and Nathan toil side by side, their love woven into the very fabric of the land. Their days are marked by the rhythm of seasons—the planting of rice saplings, the monsoon rains that breathe life into parched soil, and the harvest that sustains their family. But life is not idyllic. Famine stalks the village, and hunger gnaws at their bellies. Rukmani clings to hope, her spirit unyielding even as the world shifts around her. She witnesses the encroachment of modernity—the distant hum of factories, the allure of city lights—and wonders if progress will bring salvation or destruction. As Rukmani’s children grow, so do their dreams. Selvam, the eldest, seeks education beyond the village; Irawaddy, the daughter, yearns for love and security. Through it all, Rukmani remains the heart of their home, her hands stained with the colors of life—earth, blood, and sweat. Nectar in a Sieve is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Kamala Markandaya’s prose weaves a tapestry of love, loss, and endurance. Amidst the harsh realities of poverty and change, Rukmani’s unwavering love for Nathan becomes a beacon—a nectar that sustains them through hardship. “An elemental book. It has something better than power, the truth of distilled experience.” —New York Herald Tribune “Unique in poetic beauty, in classically restrained and controlled tragedy.”—Dorothy Canfield Fisher, noted author and critic “Will wring your hearts.”—Associated Press “A superb job in telling her story.”—Christian Science Monitor

Aranyaka

Aranyaka
Author: Amruta Patil
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Comic books, strips, etc
ISBN: 9789388754576

Chiefly on Hindu mythology and Vedic concepts.

The Folded Earth

The Folded Earth
Author: Anuradha Roy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2012-04-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451633351

From the widely acclaimed author of An Atlas of Impossible Longing, a powerful and triumphantly beautiful novel set in contemporary India, about a young woman forging a new life in the foothills of the Himalayas. LONGLISTED FOR THE 2011 MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE HINDU LITERARY PRIZE FOR BEST FICTION 2011 With her debut novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, Anuradha Roy’s exquisite storytelling instantly won readers’ hearts around the world, and the novel was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and The Seattle Times. Now, Roy has returned with another masterpiece that is already earning international prize attention, an evocative and deeply moving tale of a young woman making a new life for herself amid the foothills of the Himalaya. Desperate to leave a private tragedy behind, Maya abandons herself to the rhythms of the little village, where people coexist peacefully with nature. But all is not as it seems, and she soon learns that no refuge is remote enough to keep out the modern world. When power-hungry politicians threaten her beloved mountain community, Maya finds herself caught between the life she left behind and the new home she is determined to protect. Elegiac, witty, and profound by turns, and with a tender love story at its core, The Folded Earth brims with the same genius and love of language that made An Atlas of Impossible Longing an international success and confirms Anuradha Roy as a major literary talent.

Fire on the Mountain

Fire on the Mountain
Author: Anita Desai
Publisher: Random House India
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2012-09-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 8184003269

Gone are the days when Nanda Kaul watched over her family and played the part of Vice-Chancellor’s wife. Leaving her children behind in the real world, the busier world, she has chosen to spend her last years alone in the mountains in Kasauli, in a secluded bungalow called Carignano. Until one summer her great-granddaughter Raka is dispatched to Kasauli – and everything changes. Nanda is at first dismayed at this break in her preciously acquired solitude. Fiercely taciturn, Raka is, like her, quite untamed. The girl prefers the company of apricot trees and animals to her great-grandmother’s, and spends her afternoons rambling over the mountainside. But the two are more alike than they know. Throughout the hot, long summer, Nanda’s old, hidden dependencies and wounds come to the surface, ending, inevitably, in tragedy. Marvellous yet restrained, Fire on the Mountain speaks of the past and its unshakable hold over the present.

Solar Storms

Solar Storms
Author: Linda Hogan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 479
Release: 1997-02-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1439108447

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Linda Hogan, Solar Storms tells the moving, “luminous” (Publishers Weekly) story of Angela Jenson, a troubled Native American girl coming of age in the foster system in Oklahoma, who decides to reunite with her family. At seventeen, Angela returns to the place where she was raised—a stunning island town that lies at the border of Canada and Minnesota—where she finds that an eager developer is planning a hydroelectric dam that will leave sacred land flooded and abandoned. Joining up with three other concerned residents, Angela fights the project, reconnecting with her ancestral roots as she does so. Harrowing, lyrical, and boldly incisive, Solar Storms is a powerful examination of the clashes between cultures and traumatic repercussions that have shaped American history.

Woman-Nature Interface: An Ecofeminist Study

Woman-Nature Interface: An Ecofeminist Study
Author: Dipak Giri
Publisher: AABS Publishing House, Kolkata, India
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2019-12-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9388963601

About the Author: Dipak Giri- M.A. (Double), B.Ed. - is a Ph. D. Research Scholar in Raiganj University, Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur (W.B.). He is working as an Assistant Teacher in Katamari High School (H.S.), Cooch Behar, West Bengal. He is an Academic Counsellor in Netaji Subhas Open University, Cooch Behar College Study Centre, Cooch Behar, West Bengal. He was formerly Part Time Lecturer in Cooch Behar College, Vivekananda College and Thakur Panchanan Mahila Mahavidyalaya, West Bengal and worked as a Guest Lecturer in Dewanhat College, West Bengal. Along with this book on Woman-Nature Interface, he has also edited nine books on Indian English Drama, Indian English Novel, Postcolonial English Literature, New Woman in Indian Literature, Indian Women Novelists in English, Homosexuality in Contemporary Indian Literature, Transgender in Indian Context, Mahesh Dattani and Indian Diaspora Literature. He is a well-known academician and has published many scholarly research articles in books and journals of both national and international repute. His area of studies includes Postcolonial Literature, Indian Writing in English, Dalit Literature, Feminism and Gender Studies. About the Book: This present volume of nineteen essays presents a critical insight into the works of many writers of repute. All essays are woman and ecocentric where both woman and ecology are critically discussed. Along with literary essays, the volume also presents essays on other disciplines of learning. Hopefully this volume would try to reach many unexplored areas of knowledge and serve larger sections of humanity.

Mistress

Mistress
Author: Anita Nair
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2006-08-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429998717

When travel writer Christopher Stewart arrives at a riverside resort in Kerala, India to meet Koman, Radha's uncle and a famous dancer, he enters a world of masks and repressed emotions. From their first meeting, both Radha and her uncle are drawn to the enigmatic young man with his cello and his incessant questions about the past. The triangle quickly excludes Shyam, Radha's husband, who can only watch helplessly as she embraces Chris with a passion that he has never been able to draw from her. Also playing the role of observer-participant is Koman; his life story, as it unfolds, captures all the nuances and contradictions of the relationships being made—and unmade—in front of his eyes. Booklist calls Mistress "Tempestuously exotic, Nair's intricately woven multicultural and multigenerational saga pulsates with passion and desire."

Ecofeminist Science Fiction

Ecofeminist Science Fiction
Author: Douglas A. Vakoch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2021-04-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1000376362

Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature provides guidance in navigating some of the most pressing dangers we face today. Science fiction helps us face problems that threaten the very existence of humankind by giving us the emotional distance to see our current situation from afar, separated in our imaginations through time, space, or circumstance. Extrapolating from contemporary science, science fiction allows a critique of modern society, imagining more life-affirming alternatives. In this collection, ecocritics from five continents scrutinize science fiction for insights into the fundamental changes we need to make to survive and thrive as a species. Contributors examine ecofeminist themes in films, such as Avatar, Star Wars, and The Stepford Wives, as well as television series including Doctor Who and Westworld. Other scholars explore an internationally diverse group of both canonical and lesser-known science fiction writers including Oreet Ashery, Iraj Fazel Bakhsheshi, Liu Cixin, Louise Erdrich, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Larissa Lai, Ursula K. Le Guin, Chen Qiufan, Mary Doria Russell, Larissa Sansour, Karen Traviss, and Jeanette Winterson. Ecofeminist Science Fiction explores the origins of human-caused environmental change in the twin oppressions of women and of nature, driven by patriarchal power and ideologies. Female embodiment is examined through diverse natural and artificial forms, and queer ecologies challenge heteronormativity. The links between war and environmental destruction are analyzed, and the capitalist motivations and means for exploiting nature are critiqued through postcolonial perspectives.