This research considers a number of southern African cultural and literary texts in assessing the value of relational or animistic thought, understood in an indigenous/non-Western knowledge framework, to a decolonised environmental politics in the Global South. In doing this, the researcher seeks to explore how writers, artists and film-makers from the Global South have responded to and dismantled exploitative relationships between humans and nonhuman nature by imagining ecological alternatives. Works considered for this project include novels by Yvonne Vera and Mia Couto, paintings by Helen Sebidi and a film by Colombian film director Ciro Guerra.
Researcher
Benjamin Klein is a PhD candidate in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He completed his MPhil in the Environmental Humanities South programme at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and his MA in English Literature at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom.