Slow Violence and Environmental Resistance: A Postcolonial Eco-critical Study of Ronald Fraser’s Drought: A Novel

Abstract

Aim of the Study: This paper explores layers of slow violence inflicted upon working classes of the Global South. Transnational enterprises of the Global North inflict folds of slow violence upon the communities in which they operate. Such multinational syndicates indulge in maneuvering natural resources of Global South regions. Moreover, they create cultural and ecological hazards for communities in which they operate. Consequently, natives of such places raise voice against exploitation of their resources and ecological vandalism. However, this study, essentially, focuses on investigating slabs of slow violence inflicted upon working communities and their strategies of environmental politics to conserve environment and culture from further deformation. In this regard, it brings to the fore the gendered resistance strategies of affected communities.

Methodology: Theoretically, this study is premised on investigating existing relationship between imperial powers and recently decolonized world. In this context, theoretical underpinnings of postcolonial Eco-criticism seem plausible for this investigative study. The study consists of textual analysis of Ronald Fraser’s Drought: A Novel (2015) to explore layers of slow violence and strategies of environmental politics of impacted communities.

Findings & Conclusion: The study finds that transnational actors establish their syndicates in the Global South geographies to enhance their revenues. They exploit natural resources and inflict cultural and ecological degeneration upon these geographies. In addition, it unpacks that local authorities accomplice in exploitation, infliction of slow violence and de-escalation of environmental strategies.