Interrogating Eco-literature and Sustainable Development: Theory, Text, and Practice

This book examines the issues of ecological crisis and sustainable development through critical reading of literary texts. By analysing writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Amitav Ghosh, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hannah Arendt, and Lawrence Buell, it discusses themes like oriental representations of ecological consciousness; environmental evocations; misogyny and its postmodern creations; tracing nature’s footprints in English literature; statelessness and consequent environmental refugees; ecocriticism and comics; and, absolute trust in the goodness of the earth.

The volume argues that within the ambit of debates between ecological threats and socio-economic concerns, culture plays a vital role particularly in relation to parameters such as identity and engagement, memory and projection, gender and generations, inquiry and learning, wellbeing and health.

This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of cultural studies, English literature, social anthropology, gender studies, sustainable development, environmental studies, ecological studies, development studies, and post-colonial studies.

Sharbani Banerjee Mukherjee is Associate Professor of English in the Postgraduate Department of English at Trivenidevi Bhalotia College, Raniganj, West Bengal, India. An alumnus of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, her PhD thesis was on Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet. Her areas of interest include American literature, post-fifties British literature, Postcolonial Studies, Partition literature, Ecocriticism and Gender Studies. She has co-edited The American Novel from Hawthorne to Heller: Cultural Contexts and Critical Perspectives (2019). She is Associate Editor of Literary Oracle, journal of the Department of English, Berhampur University, Odisha.

Soumitra Roy is Associate Professor of English at Kazi Nazrul Islam Mahavidyalaya, Asansol, West Bengal, India, and has a teaching experience of over 21 years. He is an alumnus of Burdwan University, West Bengal. His areas of interest include postcolonial studies, film studies, and sports literature. His publications include “Consciousness of a Modern Indian Nation: Analysing Gender Violence from New Delhi to Kamduni”. He is also a reviewer of Literary Oracle.