Is animal death grievable and do animals grieve their dead? The answer to these questions depends on the narratives one subscribes to. In the dominant narrative of the Western world, human death is treated with respect and animal death is either invisible or instrumentalized. In this article I am considering the consequences of challenging this narrative from the sites of enunciation that are marginal to modernity and, thus, do not replicate its hyperseparated dualism (Val Plumwood’s phrase). First, I introduce the holistic imaginary of indigenous Americans on the example of Linda Hogan’s novel Solar Storms. Next, on the example of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, I move to the perspective of Duszejko – a self-exile from European modernity. Both novels demonstrate that iconographies of death (and life) make a real difference in our relationship to the nonhuman other.
This article focuses on indigenous ecofeminism and literature of matrilineage in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms (1995), a novel of environmental protest and indigenous “survivance,” a portmanteau word from “survival” and “resistance.” It analyzes the ability of inter-female bonding in mending the protagonist’s broken connections with her communal and natural environment. It depicts a gynocratic community in which women enjoy a pivotal position as leaders, storytellers, and secret keepers of healing traditions. In this novel, indigenous feminism intersects with ecofeminism, highlighting woman–nature symbolic connections as well as woman’s role in ecological conservation.
PL
Artykuł dotyczy kwestii ekofeminizmu tubylczego i literatury matrylinearnej w powieści Lindy Hogan Solar Storms. Autorka analizuje zdolność tworzenia więzi między kobietami w kontekście naprawiania zerwanych więzi bohaterki z jej środowiskiem społecznym i naturalnym. Przedstawia gynokratyczną społeczność, w której kobiety zajmują kluczową pozycję jako przywódczynie, gawędziarki czy szamanki. W powieści feminizm tubylczy krzyżuje się z ekofeminizmem, podkreślając symboliczne powiązania kobieta–natura, a także rolę kobiety w ochronie środowiska.
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