DEFORESTATION, FLOODS, AND LOSS: AN ECOCRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SUFIA HUMAYUN’S FICTION
Abstract
With the rapid change in climate in Pakistan, we see the violent side of nature in the form of floods resulting in loss and trauma for many people. Pakistani fiction writers are sensitive towards the menace of climate change. One such writer is Sufia Humayun. Her debut collection of short stories Shattered Echoes (2024) begins with a short story, Under the Currents, presenting the dark side of Nature because of human’s carelessness by cutting trees and disturbing environment. Therefore, the article explores how the story represents the changing relationship between humans and water after climate change, and how rain and flood become symbols of loss and trauma in the lives of the characters. The study is qualitative in nature and employs Greenham’s (2018) six levels of close reading to analyze the excerpts. Ecocriticism, with special reference to the work of Buell (1995), serves as the theoretical framework. The study also employs Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence” (2011, 2022) as a complementary theoretical framework within ecocriticism to reveal how decades of gradual deforestation culminate in spectacular, traumatic floods. Key findings illustrate that water, once a source of joy and celebration, has turned into a destructive force. Rain is no longer seasonal or life-giving; it appears endless, violent, and deadly. The story repeatedly presents flooded villages, uprooted trees, contaminated lakes at mountain tops, and bodies surrounded by water that cannot be drunk. Memory itself is now shaped by cycles of flood and drought. The characters suffer heavy mental and physical losses as a result. The study concludes that when humans disturb the nature, they also face the consequences in the shape of death and destruction. Reading the story with an ecocritical approach helps readers understand how environmental damage affects daily life, emotions, and cultural practices in South Asian contexts
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