Journal | Lagoonscapes
Journal issue | 4 | 1 | 2024
Research Article | Post Nature and Ecocritical Epic in Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift
Post Nature and Ecocritical Epic in Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift
Abstract
Although in postcolonial ecocritical literature the agency of animals finds full recognition, representations of insects are so rare that curiosity arises about their untapped ecocritical meaning. Interestingly, in Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift, a chorus of mosquitoes takes centre stage. In the first section of this paper, I argue that Serpell’s novel recontextualises classical references, placing them between adaptation to the conventions of epic poems and innovation. In the second section, the ecocritical meanings of the chorus of mosquitoes are analysed and framed in relation to the concepts of ‘simulacrum’ and post nature.
Submitted: March 26, 2024 | Accepted: June 5, 2024 | Published July 8, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords The Old Drift • Namwali Serpell • Epic poems • Post nature • Ecocriticism
Copyright © 2024 Costanza Mondo. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2024/01/002
