Capitalism against the planet: Posthuman ecocriticism in Alistair Mackay's It Doesn't Have To Be This Way.
In this article, I examine various dimensions of displacement resulting from the environmental crisis envisaged in the speculative debut novel of the South African author Alistair Mackay: It Doesn't Have To Be This Way (2022). The theoretical framework is located in the area of posthumanist studies...
| Publicado en: | Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 14 - 25 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Literary Criticism |
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Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186075565&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 186075565 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0041476X 162I jtl: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde issn: 0041476X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2025 vid: 62 iid: 1 pid: 71603 pub: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde artinfo: ui: 186075565 10.17159/tl.v62i1.18824 ppf: 14 ppct: 11 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Capitalism against the planet: Posthuman ecocriticism in Alistair Mackay's It Doesn't Have To Be This Way. aug: au: Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz affil: Associate professor, Department of British Literature and Culture, Institute of English Studies, Faculty of Philology, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland su: Capitalism Mackay, Alistair Posthumanism Kaplan, E. Ann Neoliberalism It Doesn't Have to Be This Way (Book) 21st century (Literary period) sug: subj: Capitalism Mackay, Alistair Posthumanism Kaplan, E. Ann Neoliberalism It Doesn't Have to Be This Way (Book) 21st century (Literary period) keyword: Alistair Mackay apocalyptic fiction capitalism colonialism ecocriticism environment neoliberalism posthumanism South Africa ab: In this article, I examine various dimensions of displacement resulting from the environmental crisis envisaged in the speculative debut novel of the South African author Alistair Mackay: It Doesn't Have To Be This Way (2022). The theoretical framework is located in the area of posthumanist studies but also involves elements of trauma theory, as the issue of psychological displacement is viewed through E. Ann Kaplan's concept of pretrauma, a paralysing anxiety about the future disaster evoked by the scenarios of the near apocalypse. I also offer a brief review of the political and economic conditions of post-apartheid South Africa, discussing the country's adoption of neoliberal tenets. Since Mackay's novel represents climate change as the result of ecologically hazardous activities of multinational corporations which stem from their colonial/imperialist commodification of the natural environment, my analysis draws from ecocritical African studies and contemporary critiques of capitalism, thus situating the climatic catastrophe of the Anthropocene in the context of destructive practices of the neoliberalist economy. Furthermore, in this article, I employ the posthumanist perspective (Hayles; Braidotti) to discuss the issue of body augmentation, presenting the reservations of Mackay's characters towards dehumanising effects of integrating our bodies with ultramodern technologies. Finally, a pro-active ecological endeavour of tree-planting is examined in the context of Donna Haraway's notion of the Chthulucene as well as a long-standing African appreciation of the forest--as a biological asset, regulating climate and farming, and as a spiritual one, the abode of deities. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde is the property of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde holder: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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