The paper of research explores the connection between the exploitative colonialism and environmental injustice based on the critical theory of postcolonial ecocriticism in contemporary English literature. Postcolonial ecocriticism integrates the findings of ecological criticism with those of postcolonial theory to examine the ways in which the colonial power structures changed the landscape, the ecosystem, and the native connections to nature. The research focuses on the colonial expansion that resulted in the massive environmental degradation by the plantation farming, mining, deforestation, resource extraction, and how the historical events contribute to the modern ecological crises. Through the discussion of environmental change in literary works, the paper will point out how contemporary writers of the English language portray the disproportionate cause of environmental degradation among the less privileged groups especially in the former colonies. The paper also looks at the notion of environmental justice and the notion of slow violence which means the ecological destruction to the vulnerable populations, which is gradual and sometimes invisible. The paper will show the value of indigenous ecological knowledge and alternative relations with nature through a postcolonial ecocritical approach that reveals the cultural, political and historical aspects of environmental exploitation as well as the significance of indigenous environmental knowledge. In conclusion, the paper contends that contemporary English literature has a role to play in the creation of awareness on environmental justice and in the unravelling of the consequences of colonialism on the environment in the modern world.
Gardener et al. (Fri,) studied this question.