Colonial Landscapes and Postcolonial Memory: An Ecocritical Reading of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives

Abstract

This study examines the interplay between colonialism, landscape, and postcolonial memory in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives (2020) through an ecocritical lens. While previous scholarship emphasizes migration and identity, the ecological dimensions of colonial power and their enduring impact on postcolonial consciousness remain underexplored. The research investigates how colonial interventions such as land appropriation, plantation economies, and environmental restructuring shape both the material and symbolic landscapes in the novel. Through close textual analysis and ecocritical theory, the study demonstrates how nature functions as a repository of memory, trauma, and survival, revealing the entanglement of ecological and social histories. Findings indicate that Gurnah foregrounds the persistence of environmental and social hierarchies, illustrating how postcolonial subjects navigate the legacies of imperial exploitation while reconstructing identity and belonging. The study contributes to ecocritical and postcolonial literary studies by highlighting landscapes as active sites of historical witness and memory, emphasizing the inseparability of environmental and human narratives in postcolonial contexts.