Anticolonial ecofeminism and indigenous women’s fiction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, New Zealand
| dc.contributor.author | Duff, Danielle | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-09-25T21:00:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-09-25T21:00:00Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Novels written by Indigenous women often portray an intimate relationship with the environment, shaped by an intersectional understanding of race, gender and class, while also examining how it is negatively impacted by colonialism and capitalism. Indigenous ecofeminism provides a means of exploring women’s connections to the environment and recognising more specifically how Indigeneity affects this relationship. Drawing on theories of ecofeminism, postcolonialism and Indigenous studies, I analyse four novels written by women from different Indigenous cultures that also display considerable formal variety: Chantal T. Spitz’s (Mā’ohi) Island of Shattered Dreams (2007); Patricia Grace’s (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, and Te Āti Awa) Potiki (1986); Alexis Wright’s (Waanyi) The Swan Book (2013); and Linda Hogan’s (Chickasaw) Solar Storms (1994). Through exploration of form, plot, themes, and characterisation I argue that each novelist articulates a unique narrative vision of anticolonial, Indigenous ecofeminism. My analysis of each novel is guided by the author’s cultural background, with each chapter adopting a distinct methodology informed by that culture’s mythologies, cultural specificities, and historiographies. Viewed collectively, I also argue that these novels reveal similarities that define an Indigenous ecofeminist literary tradition, including non-linear temporality, the privileging of oral storytelling and mythology, and imagining the sovereignty of land and mind. This thesis argues that literature written by Indigenous women presents a powerful means of transmitting vital cultural, ecological, and feminist insights. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/71523 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Massey University | |
| dc.rights | The author | en |
| dc.subject.anzsrc | 470509 Ecocriticism | en |
| dc.subject.anzsrc | 451901 Global Indigenous studies culture, language and history | en |
| dc.title | Anticolonial ecofeminism and indigenous women’s fiction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, New Zealand | |
| dc.type | Thesis |