Women, Environment and Non-human Agency in Latitudes of
Longing: An Ecofeminist New Materialist Critique
Rejoan Ali,
Junior Research Fellow,
Department of English,
Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University,
West Bengal, India.
Abstract: Agency
is an entity's power to assert itself and make changes. The non-human and
material world have agency. This agency differs from human agency which processes
intentionality, consciousness. Non-human and planetary agencies are manifested
in different ways. However, in the anthropocene, non-human world, women and
other powerless entities are stripped of agency. In the novel, Latitudes of
Longing (2018), Shubhangi Swarup presents the ways, through which non-human
entities, women and environment assert their agency. Themes, structure of the
novel and linguistic mastery of the novelist equip the novel to become a
planetary agent itself. In four parts of the novel, humans, animals, lands,
plants and other planetary elements collaborate with each other. Meanwhile, the
environment influences all the happenings and asserts it's agency. Mountains
and islands as non-human agents influence human actions. Like nature, women too
are stripped of agency in androcentric anthropocentrism. But women like Chanda
Devi, Mary strive to claim their agency. Chanda Devi uses her indigenous
knowledge to have the agency and Mary uses her memory, her love for nature to
become a planetary agent. The human characters, non-human entities like
islands, mountains, natural phenomena intraact and influence each other. In
doing so, they reclaim their agency and assert their subjectivity.
Keywords: Agency, Environment, Memory, Women, Indigenous Knowledge
Agency is
the capability of entities to act and produce effects, through which entities
influence the happenings. For Barad, 'agency' is not an attribute of something
or someone; rather it is the process of cause and effect in
"enactment" (Meeting the Universe Halfway 214). But in the
Anthropocene--and more specifically in the capitalocene--the environment,
women, non-human and other subaltern entities are controlled, chained and
stripped of their agency, and therefore misused and exploited. But present
literary, cultural, political movements are taking initiatives to end the
"human exceptionalism" and attempting to find more environmentally
sound ways to coexist with the "more than human world" (qtd. in
Pearson 709). Consequently, these, stripped of power, environment, non-human
and other peripheral entities including women, minorities, racially subjugated,
are steadily gaining their place and agency to assert their autonomy and
existence. The perception of agency has occurred continuously in various
philosophical schools, probably since Descartes. However, New Materialism does
not prioritise anthropocentric actions; instead, it considers human as an
geological agent and illustrates various forms of human and non-human agencies.
In New Materialism: Ontology, Agency and Politics (2010), Diana Coole
and Samantha Frost, writing from a posthumanist perspective, speak about the
matters' lively quality of "exhibiting agency" and connection of the
"status of life and of the human"(7). Despite having diverse view
points, this perspective in Jane Bennett's words, "enchanted
materialism"--ascribes agency even to inorganic entities as these
"enjoy a certain efficacy that defies human will" (9). Shubhangi
Swarup in the novel Latitudes of Longing
(2018), has presented various
forms of human and non-human agencies which shape the world as well as human
actions. She has used magical elements, colonial history, natural forces, and
memory; memory of earth and other human characters, and utilised themes and
structure to create an earth centric narration. These endeavours articulate how
the human including women, more than human forces reclaim agency. New
Materialism defines agency in many ways and uses it as a central concept, and
attempts to assign ways to explore matters' intrinsic value, activities and how
it influences the world, and in Barad's word, --to give "matter its
due" (Meeting the Universe 136). Generally, agency is the ability
of the environment, animate, inanimate objects and material world to "act,
to produce effects" (Bennett,6); the power to override the human's
initiatives to control those, and constrain human engineering "in ways we cannot
predict" (Alaimo and Hekman, 7).
One of the
striking dimensions of Latitudes of Longing (2018), is its role as a
space, a literary sanctuary where the marginalized, voiceless, human, organic,
inorganic, non-human find resonance and more importantly capture the ways to
reclaim their agency, to assert their subjectivity. In the novel, Swarup uses
narrative structure, thematic structure and linguistic authenticity to counter
the traditional anthropocentric literary forms like realism. She has depicted
the agency of a more powerful and vast environment. Most of the narratives in
green or environmental writing uses traditional, realistic, linear
storytelling. These narratives emphasize on the settings; uses of nature as a
passive entity, open to the human intervention. Consequently the human, more
than human, overall planetary crisis and human obligation remain untouched.
Amitav Ghosh in his book The Great Derangement (2016) speaks of the
inconveniences of realism as a literary form. He argues complex functions,
unpredictability of environmental forces including oceans, mountain, storm and
interrelationship between human and more than human remain untouched in realism.
Realism's personal narrative style and use of the limited timeframe can't grasp
the unpredictability and vastness of planetary forces. Unlike many green
writings of Realism, Shubhangi Swarup, in the novel Latitudes of Longing,
employs magical elements, memory folktales, historical elements, ghosts,
stories of migration. Most importantly, she has used nature not as a mere
backdrop, instead, an active entity and natural forces as active agents. These
elements equip the novel with ambiguity, inconsistency and unrealistic
experiences. Thus, the novel opposes the conventional rational, logical ways of
looking at the earth and earthly beings. By blending all the thematic and
structural experiments, Swarup engages in challenging human centred ways of
storytelling and seduces us to look at the interconnectedness of human and more
than human and planet's oneness.
Latitudes of Longing
(2018) is constructed with four interconnected stories. These four parts cover
the Indian sub-continent. The stories take place in the Andaman Islands, Burma,
Nepal and a fictional village probably in the Kashmiri Valley claimed by both
India and Pakistan. Swarup illustrates the stories which not only speak of the
story of human characters as well as the Earth. Earth becomes the central force
in it. She has presented how earth shapes the past, present and future of its
inhabitants. The novel's structure is based on geological landscapes or
features which connect the four stories. The first story, "Islands,"
tells the stories of Girija Prasad and his wife Chanda Devi settled in the
Andaman Islands. Girija Prasad is a scientist who researches on the geological
forces and Chanda Devi who contrasts Girija Prasad's rational scientific
knowledge with indigenous knowledge. The next story is titled,
"Faultline", chronicles the story of Mary, a domestic servant of
Girija Prasad and Chanda Devi. Mary's husband is dead and she is separated from
her son Plato. He is captured and imprisoned for rebellious activities in
Burma. Mary longs to meet her son. The next section is "Valley" which
tells the story of Thapa, a friend of Plato. Thapa lives a lonely life in
Kathmandu having lost his family in a natural calamity. And the final section,
"Snow Desert", illustrates the life of Tashi Yeshi, an old man called
Apo by his people. A nomadic person who shifted to an unnamed village in
Karakoram region. The novelist masterfully connected one story with another
one. In doing so the novel blurs the differences between minor characters and
major characters, between human and non-human. Moreover, uses of environmental
structures or faultlines as the basis of novel's structure connect the
characters from different regions and different time periods as well as
showcases the centrality of earth which shapes and intervanes into the
individual stories. Moreover, she has used the focalization from the geological
perspective, instead of using anthropocentric human viewpoints. Judith Rahn
aptly observes that "by focussing on the physical materiality of the land
first and the human lives second, the narration sets the scene for an
investigation of our world which does not situate the human centre-stage"
(242). Narrative mode, temporal and spatial vastness, human characters,
animals, plants, islands, mountains, natural calamities, oceans all together
tell the story of the earth. Thus, these elements become earth's agency. The
planet uses human and more than human forces to assert its agency which shapes
history, migration, war, politics and memories. The novel's narrative and structure
mirror the complexity of the Earth's system. However, the novel assigns agency
to the non-human elements by using experimental linguistic style. Earth's
agency is manifested in the articulation of planetary elements. Thus, the novel
speaks of the silent ways of communication. The silent communicative ways are
depicted as "larval silence precedes the dawn. It is a deliberate pause, a
reflection filled with hope and anxiety. Hidden amongst the cluck and hiss, the
croak and chatter outside the window, and songs of the extinct" (Swarup
83). These figurative languages with their onomatopoetic effects not only
represent the human's emotional expression but appear as means of the planet's
communicative mode, the silent ways in which the non-human entities communicate.
Thus, this structural uniqueness, narrative craftiness, and linguistic style
fulfill the novelist's aim to write the environment from shared perspectives
without discriminating among the different geological agencies. Consequently
the novel itself becomes a geological agency advocating for environmental
consciousness.
Walter
Johnson in "On Agency" states that agency is a "self-directed
action", which implies possession of the ability to think and act
independently and follow free will (115). This reasoning ability is the central
within the human centred concept of agency. This ability helps humans to get
away from their 'slavery' or political and social structure, their instinct,
their emotional states, and custom tradition. Consequently, in this perception,
an actor needs intentionality, consciousness, which environmental and other
non-human agencies lack. New Materialists, mainly Barad and Bennett speak of a
new notion of agency that is "loose from its traditional humanist
orbit" (Barad, "Posthumanist Performativity" 144). They oppose
the idea that humans act actively whereas nature is a passive backdrop, rather
they emphasize nature is lively and conceives diverse agencies which plays a
crucial role in shaping the events. Karen Barad conveys the perception of
agency through the idea of "intra-action" of different materials
("Posthumanist Performativity" 136). He expresses the idea that the
world is composed of phenomena which become as they are through "specific
intra-actions" ("Posthumanist Performativity" 136). Moreover,
what is called human agency is required of consciousness, intelligence, desire
which occurs at the expense of "intra-action" of different human and
non-human agents. As Bennett explains in Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology
of Things (2010), "there was never a time, when human agency was
anything other than an interfolding network of humanity and non-humanity; today
this mingling has become harder to ignore" (31). However, to Val Plumwood
the ways agencies or agencial qualities are manifested in nature are different
from how these manifest in human, she asserts that, intentionality and
consciousness are associated with very specifically human forms of agency, she
emphasizes which are not to be reinscribed on nature, instead it would be more
affirmative to embrace nature's agency in many diverse forms (Plumwood, Environmental
Culture 180-84). The land, mountain, emerge as profound spaces, those are
not mere physical settings. Land is a very crucial agent in the novel.
Landscapes shape the life, experiences, and living of humans as well as other
life forms. The four landforms stand for environmental agency. This planetary
agency is constituted by the "intra-acting" of diverse agents like
human, animals, memory, history, ghost, war, weather, plants, and the process
and formation of various landforms. In the novel, the humans, landscapes,
ghosts, waterscape all advocate for the planet. The Island has been a vessel
for the characters' grief, pain and longing. The earth, the land, water in it
have the memories of its past. The memory of the breaking of the Pangaea plate
and the separation of the Indian subcontinent are archived in the planet's
memory. This memory influences human life and other non-human lives like
plants. Moreover, the unstable state of earth in the past created an impact on
human survival in the present and more than humans through tsunami,
earthquakes. Thus, these become geological agencies which assert the planet has
the influence over human life and other forms of life. The natural world in the
novel is not passive, it bears witness to the atrocities of colonialism and
carries the weight of history. The Island, in the first part, serves as a
symbol of the inescapable past. This place embodies the scares of colonial history,
and the ongoing struggle for identity and agency in the aftermath of
colonialism. The Island carries the memories of the planet. The island as a geological agency has
revolted against colonization. The buildings constructed in the British and
Japanese colonial period are broken by earthquakes and carry the memory of
geological intervention. The colonial project of naming the places by Lord Good
enough as a symbol of establishing dominance over nature, would get shattered
by the planet's forces. The places he had named would be devoured by the
geological forces and it would change the human made map of the lands.
Non-humans
influence and constrain human activities. The environmental agency dictates
human actions. Thus, human intentions and activities are formed in response to
the environmental changes. Linda Nash observes that "human intentions do
not emerge in a vacuum, that ideas often cannot be clearly distinguished from
actions, that so-called human agency cannot be separated from the environments
in which that agency emerges" (69). According to Latour, environmental
agents "authorize, allow, afford, encourage, permit, suggest, influence,
block, render possible, forbid, and so on (72). Hence, a non-human agent
asserts its agency even by influencing, enabling and sustaining human
intentions and activities. The final part in the novel, "Snow Desert"
where newly independent India and Pakistan both want to own a "disputed
land". But, the mountain, glaciers, and weather as geological forces have
the most authority over the place. These entities constantly change their
states and punch back to all human efforts for stable boundaries that make it
impossible to capture the land. Girija Prasad's grandson Rana is a scientist
who was on a mission to breed plants in the place to make it possible for India
to claim the territory. As it is narrated that "Indian government will use
the UN's guidelines on disputed territories to claim ownership over the
glaciers. The first person to cultivate a piece of land can stake claim over
it, one of its clauses states" (Swarup 313). However, all his efforts have
perished. At last, Apo helps Rana to realise that the place is not safe to
stay, and eventually, the glaciers, the weather would take all the
tresspassers. He claims, "'Even if India, Pakistan and China stop fighting
over the ice and unite to remain there, the mountains will win. Sons, tell your
armies and scientists to leave the glaciers. That is the only way they can be
safe'" (Swarup 298). Through Apo's insights, Swarup presents the
triviality of human power and dominance over the geological forces. Apo
expresses that "'Mountains are the truth'...'They are remnants of truth
behind all creation. Precariously balanced, threatening to crumble'"
(Swarup 284). He asserts that the material forces are more vast and powerful
than human's presence in the arena.
However,
ecofeminism has always been concerned with nature. Ecofeminists, like Val
Plumwood, have explicitly focused on the concept of agency. New Materialism
develops its conceptual basis from ecofeminism, as both critique
"oppression and the effects of oppressive structures on humans, 'natural
others' and more than human elements" (Casselot 73). Ecofeminists argue
that there is a
connection between oppression of women and nature as the anthropocentrism which is androcentric in nature; this connection helps to perpetuate the oppression and devaluation of both
(Warren 282). Moreover, western thought of hierarchical dualism creates binary
opposition of superiority and inferiority. This dualistic thought upholds
human, man, mind, rational, as superior over nature/non-human, woman, body,
emotional which are devalued and considered inferior. This dualism has
legitimised oppression of "Other" women and the destruction of
"Other" nature (Plumwood, Environmental Culture 4). The
dominating group ascribes 'nature' or 'natural' to inferior groups and "nature's
agency as such is denied" that master group often disempowers
"others" by associating or assimilating with nature. (Plumwood,
"Nature as Agency"7).
In
addition to that, western epistemology treats rational scientific, male centred
knowledge as privileged and often sidelines spiritual, emotional and indigenous
ways of comprehending nature. Latitudes of Longing is quite successful
in breaking this bias. In the novel, characters--especially Chanda
Devi--interact with the trees, animals, ghosts and even with the Islands. While
western tradition might consider as "magic realism," the novelist's
craftsmanship places these aspects in a meaningful position which exemplifies
the "intra-action" of all matters (Barad, Meeting the Universe
136). The first
section of the novel "Islands," tells the story of Girija Prasad and
his equally educated wife Chanda Devi. Girija
Prasad Verma believes in a scientific approach
to life. He thinks of everything with facts
and logic, which is challenged by Chanda Devi's indigenous knowledge. She, a
gold medalist in Mathematics and Sanskrit, is intuitive and spiritual towards
life. Through the "clairvoyant" character of Chanda Devi, the
narrator articulates the limitation of western rationality and scientific
knowledge that these cannot comprehend the complexity of the planet. Chanda
Devi has an ability to speak with trees which surprises Girija Prasad; when he
asks why she can talk to plants, Chanda Devi responds, "'[P]lants are the
most sensitive spirits in the web of creation. ...which is why they can see,
feel and hear more than other forms, especially humans'" (Swarup 109).
Irrespective of being rational, scientific, keen observer of nature Girija
Prasad could not comprehend Chanda Devi's understanding of the planet. In her
book Staying Alive: Women Ecology and Survival in India (1988),
Vandana Shiva asserts, "Women in India are an intimate part of nature,
both in imagination and in practice. At one level nature is symbolised as the
embodiment of the feminine principle, and at another, she is nurtured by the
feminine to produce life and provide sustenance"(37). Chanda Devi is a
materialized version of this idea. The novel presents ghosts from the colonial
period. They communicate with Chanda Devi. As the novel presents, "Chanda
Devi, the clairvoyant one, she feels for ghosts and enjoys the laconic company
for trees" (Swarup 5). A palm tree that produces flowers and seeds once in
a lifetime and dies which symbolically informs Chanda Devi about her impending
death during childbirth (Swarup 64). All these instances imply a connection
between human and non-human. Chanda Devi's power and knowledge over environment
and non-human mesmerises the local people. For them she is more learned than
her scientist husband (Swarup 30). Due to her ability to control other animals,
she has been contacted by the forest department when an elephant went
uncontrolled. She even predicted a crocodile attack and protected her husband
from being devoured by the crocodile. Local people started to believe her to be
a goddess:"If Chanda Devi can see ghosts, transform her beef eating
husband into a vegetarian and predict crocodile attack, she can definitely
speak to god, the islanders believe. Rumour has it that Girija Prasad is
married to a god-woman who controls crocodiles and elephants the way she
controls her husband" (Swarup 46). Chanda Devi senses the slightest of changes
of Earth's sphere. She could comprehend the fluctuations of gravity of Earth.
She worries about burning dal because, as she states, "the islands are so
unpredictable. The gravity keeps shifting" (Swarup 110). It hinders her
daily activities as "it took me [Chanda Devi] almost half an hour to get
the water heated--and then burnt up, just like that!" (110). These
illustrate how the geological forces like, gravity, tsunamis, earthquake
influence and shape the human lives. Interestingly, Girija Prasad understands
these fluctuations of gravitational force long after while writing his
paper. It surprises him that his wife
understood the phenomenon before he did. All these phenomena in the novel might
erupt the perception of fantasy and put the novel into a fantasy or magic
realm. But, Swarup elaborates that the power of Chanda Devi is an articulation
of a part of indigenous knowledge which connects humans with its planet. She
further says in an interview if someone considers this as magical, it would
imply that we have become so disconnected from nature" to see it as
magical instead of real" (Swarup, Changing How). However, the novel
articulates the environmental crisis and its incomprehensible way to assert
itself through the indigenous knowledge of Chanda Devi. Moreover, Chanda Devi's
knowledge equips her to claim her agency, and erects her as an individual
entity "intra-acting" with other geographical forces and to become an
agent of the planet.
The second
part of the novel, titled "Fault Lines," deals with the life of Mary
and her son Plato. She has worked in the household of Girija Prasad and Chanda
Devi. She hears about her son Plato's state in prison and she decides to return
to Burma. She meets with Thapa and tells him her story. Here, she uses her
memory to share her traumatic past. She remembers that she left her house for
Burman. But after marriage, her husband used to beat her. She kept tolerating
her husband. But one day, when he kicked her pregnant belly, she pleaded
"'don't kick your child'", but he did not stop and called her
"'whore'". To defend herself and child, she hits "his ankle with
the rice pounder" and then "slit the vein in his throat" (Swarup
162-63).Burman died in her lap. Moreover, she wanted her son to know that
"His father was not a monster...nor [is] she a murderer" (Swarup
165). As remembering is a form of agency, she was telling her story she took
authority over her memory, her past and reclaimed agency. Moreover, Mary was a
girl of nature and had compassion for other creatures like the "venomous
snake,""bone-crushing crocodile" and "strangling
creepers" as she believes they are equally important constituent parts of
a larger whole: "were they not creatures of God too?... A god whose
worshippers had the freedom to bite and hurt without guilt" (Swarup 146).
Moreover, she is considered as a "mother earth figure who sustains life
with one hand and destroys detrimental elements with the other" (Sabu and
Mudaliar 103). Her advocacy for more than the human world, makes her a geological
agent.
In
the second part of the novel "Fault Line", Plato, Mary's son, was imprisoned in Burma as a
political prisoner for revolutionary
activities. When Plato was tortured, he was snatched all the right, and being
treated as an animal. The theme of Plato's torture nullify the difference
between human world and the animal world, presents the crisis related to their
existence. But, Plato resisted the torture and reclaim his agency by
transgressing the authoritative rules. He displays his agency while he refuses to
eat in the prison. Similar, instance of transgressing and reclaiming agency we
can trace in the first part, "Islands" which the elephants were
disobeying the introduction of the forest department officer. As Chris Philo
and Chris Wilbert argues, animals display agency when they "destabilize,
transgress, or even resist our human orderings" (5).
Moreover,
in the prison Plato's state assimilates with the other non-human species. In
the prison he dreams that he becomes "a fly caught in tree sap, the colour
of blood" (Swarup 168) and when awakes he observes a mantis is devouring a
cockroach (Swarup 168-69). This signifies the assimilation of human and
non-human life and power struggle. He identifies himself with more than human. His
childhood memories trigger him to associate
himself with nature and he refuses the anthropocentric division between human
and non-human: "The jungle was a place where tigers, crocodiles, Nagas--serpent dragons--and Nat spirits ruled. It was
where he belonged" (Swarup 130). Even in pain, he associates himself with
natural forest and exhibits his creatureliness, "he bleats like a goat and
yawns like a buffalo. He roars like a tiger and hisses like a snake"
(Swarup 156). Plato's connectivity to nature and animals, and opposition to
systematic oppression exemplify the resistance of ‘more than human’ world (qtd.
in Pearson 709). Hence, when he associates himself with nature and animals, and
resists human centric activities becomes a geological
agent.
To
sum up, agency is crucial for an entity's subjectivity. It helps the entity to
have the power to assert itself, and resist systematic exploitations. Latitudes
of Longing articulates such agencial qualities of women, the environment and other planetary
entities. In the novel, Chanda Devi, Mary, Apo, Plato, and the environment and
overall planet through their different capabilities reclaim their agency and
assert themselves.
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