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Article Summary by David C.
Maxwell starts her argument by comparing and contrasting ecocriticism and postcolonial criticism. She first talks about how the two styles are starting to mesh together with examples of works that tie in both the environment and imperialism. One example she uses is poems written by Ken Saro-Wiwa, that describes how the Shell Oil Company in Nigeria is causing both an environmental disaster and how it is destroying an ethnic minority group’s way of life. Despite this, Maxwell then goes on to describe how the two styles used to conflict with each other. She writes that certain aspects of ecocriticism have made it difficult for postcolonial writers to incorporate it into their works. One aspect was that many people considered ecocriticism “nature writing”, that is, writing about untouched wilderness. This poses a problem for postcolonial writers because they deal with human greed and the suffering of other humans. Postcolonial writers don’t really deal with nature, as their main concern is with how the west exploited the local people. Another aspect that sparked conflict between the two writing styles is ecocriticism’s lack of effort to question the ideological distinction between nature and culture. This means that critics are saying the ecocriticism hasn’t addressed what exactly is nature and other philosophical questions that surround it. This, however, has changed according to Maxwell, as writers are now starting to explore that question and are coming up with answers to it. One other problem that Maxwell describes is the problem of Indigenous people and their concept of sustainability. This is because some postcolonial writers accuse ecocriticism of caring about the Indigenous people only when they can be useful in a debate about the environment. This has led some postcolonial writers to question whether ecocriticism is just another way to exploit their cultures.
Despite all of these conflicts, Maxwell moves into the second part of her article to show how well these two styles work together. In this part of the article, she focuses on the short story The Fittest by George Turner, as an example of how well these two styles can mix. The story is set in the future in Australia after a major climate disaster raised the water levels dramatically and has divided the people into the haves and have nots. The haves are called the Sweet and live in the best areas, with the most resources. They are the minority, while the majority, known as the Swill live in horrible conditions and are reduced to behave like wild animals in order to survive. This ties in both ecocriticism and postcolonial writing because it focuses on both the consequences of environmental disaster that was caused by global warming and how the elite is exploiting the minority with corrupt financial practices and racism from the Sweet to the Swill. Maxwell uses this story to show how well these two styles can interact and how it can deliver the message more powerfully together, than by themselves. She then goes on to another work by Turner called The Sea and Summer which takes place even more into the future. This story has Australia back in peace with no more Sweet or Swill. Everyone lives in harmony together and look back to that time as a period of savagery. Maxwell argues that this story is used to show the lessons of human greed, racism, and environmental destruction, elements of both ecocriticism and postcolonial criticism.
In her conclusion, Maxwell makes the argument that the combination of ecocriticism and postcolonial criticism can work and would make the message they are trying to get across more persuasive. She says, “… combining the fields of postcolonialism and ecocriticism adds to the critical force and relevancy of both disciplines…” She also describes how works like The Fittest could help students understand the social and environmental problems that the world faces. All in all, Maxwell’s article suggests that the best way for both writing styles to get their message across is to work with each other.
Maxwell, Anne. "Postcolonial Criticism, Ecocriticism And Climate Change: A Tale Of Melbourne Under Water In 2035." Journal Of Postcolonial Writing 45.1 (2009): 15-26. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
