The Interaction between Tradition and Modernity: The Evolution of East Asian Literature in the Context of Globalization

South Asian literature has historically engaged with ecocriticism and environmentalism from a postcolonial, region-specific standpoint. New materialism aligns with this ecocritical commitment, emphasizing posthumanist concepts of embodiment and material entanglement between human and nonhuman agencies. While both new materialism and South Asian literature share an interest in alternative human and nonhuman interactions, there has been limited meaningful interaction between the two. This article aims to bridge this gap by analyzing Kiran Desai’s novel “Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard” through a new materialist lens. The novel portrays human and nonhuman characters interacting, envisioning posthumanist possibilities in the world. Drawing on Karen Barad’s agential realist theory and Stacy Alaimo’s concept of trans-corporeality, the article argues that Desai’s light-hearted satire raises critical questions about environmental and human exploitation. The examination of India’s material reality, considering local, national, global, and historical dimensions, highlights the agential realist nature of human and nonhuman interactions in the novel’s rural postcolonial context. This interpretation broadens the scope of new materialism into South Asian literature, fostering the potential use of new materialist theory to engage with ecocriticism from a postcolonial perspective.