An Ecocritical Study of Selected Nigerian and American Indian Poetry

Dr Joyce Agofure, Rhodes University

Date: Wednesday 6 March 2019

Venue: Departmental Seminar Room

Time: 14h15 - 15h00

This paper is an ecocritical study of selected Nigerian poetry in Tanure Ojaide's The Tale of the Harmattan (2015) and American Indian Poetry in Simon Ortiz's Woven Stone (1992) to shed light on how issues of racial oppression, resistance, displacement, toxicity, militancy, exploitation of natural resources and environmental annihilation intertwine. To explicate cross-cultural ecological problems, my study draws on post-colonial ecocriticism and trans-corporeality, which offers insights on how to appraise forms of eco­ degradation in the quest for petroleum resources and precious minerals. The study highlights the specific ways the selected poets articulate contemporary socio-environmental disquiet about ecologically polluted regions. The study explores the poetry of mining, environmental and cultural disruptions by comparing contemporary Nigerian and American Indian writings about such complex fundamental issues. This presentation is derived from an ongoing research project which centres on a comparative ecocritical study of selected Nigerian poetry in Ogaga lfowodo's The Oil Lamp (2005), Nnimmo Bassey's / Will Not Dance to Your Beat (2011), Tanure Ojaide's The Tale of the Harmattan (2015) and American Indian Poetry in Linda Hogan's Dark. Sweet: New and Selected Poems (2014) as well as Simon Ortiz's Woven Stone (1992).

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