Environmental Concerns in Contemporary African Fiction: An Ecocritical Study of Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel and Oil on Water
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Date
2016-09-08
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Bayero University Kano
Abstract
The study examines the representation of the environment in contemporary
African fiction, analyzing the following two novels by Helon Habila, Waiting
for an Angel and Oil on Water. The goal of the study is to assess the extent to
which contemporary African fiction is responding to the developing coalition
between literature and ecological preservation. Adopting an ecocritical
framework in the analysis and a library research methodology, the study
found that both novels, albeit in slightly different ways, present rich
depictions of the environment imbued into their plots, setting, the
development of characters, and thematic concerns. In this light, the study
concludes that, unlike the situation a few decades ago, contemporary African
fiction writers have embraced the call of global green – the infusion of
environmental message into their literary texts.