ON REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE AND WOMEN IN CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

Abstract

The disaster that struck on 11 March, 2011 in Japan and its aftermath not only led to an irrevocable catastrophe but also highlighted the arrogance of humans in thinking that they are capable of controlling nature. It may be a far stretch to parallel what has happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to slavery, but these two events are equally the consequences of the workings of capitalism. Just as Fukushima is the result of Tokyo’s exploitation of the countryside for cheaper electricity, slavery was established to provide cheaper products. It can be said that the dichotomy between nature and civilization is necessitated by the workings of capitalism, as are gender and racial categories. The tragedy of Fukushima forces us to reconsider the relationship between nature and civilization, and between the periphery and the centre. In this context, a reading of Caribbean literature may suggest some solutions as its offers important insights into the continuous exploitation of the periphery while unsettling the boundary between nature and civilization. The Caribbean landscape, known for its beautiful beaches and palm trees, is actually an artificial construct. Much of its vegetation is transplanted from elsewhere, just like its slaves, to actualize the planters’ dream of creating their Eden. The artificial creation of the Caribbean landscape suggests a flaw in the binary opposition of nature against civilization. Although the Western concept of nature, which portrays nature as something that can be controlled, influenced later generations of Caribbean thinkers and writers, some writers are aware of the shortcomings of this definition of nature when applied to the Caribbean landscape, and they have pondered how the idea of nature/origins has controlled people’s mentalities. In the West, there was a persistent belief that the lost Eden of the Old Testament still existed somewhere on Earth, and in the age of great adventure many competed to find that Eden, but to no avail. Instead, they resolved at last to create their own Eden in the New World: