Ecocritical Perspectives on Landscape Narratives Towards an Earth-Centred Aesthetics in Caribbean Literature

Abstract

The ecological imperatives of post-colonial Caribbean literature invites an eschatological survey of the region’s biosphere. The history of colonization and slavery in the archipalego doesn’t foreclose an integrated study of its natural landscape as the recipient of its ugly chapter. Discourse of the historical and cultural violence of the Caribbean is integral to an understanding of the literary representations of its geography. Literary imaginary in the region is simultaneously oriented towards the racial and biotic history of displacement/exile. The Caribbean archipelago exists in a state of profound ecological uncertainty and insecurity, situated at the convergent point of historical brutality impacts and the enduring legacies of colonial exploitation. This article posits that contemporary Caribbean literature does not merely document this crisis but actively engages in a critical project of reimagining island futures through the lens of ecocriticism. Moving beyond descriptive accounts of environmental degradation, the analysis investigates how literary texts deploy narrative form, metaphor, and character to interrogate the slow violence of ecological ruin and articulate resilient, alternative ontologies. The theoretical framework is intentionally plural, weaving together postcolonial ecocriticism (DeLoughrey & Handley, 2011), the concept of slow violence (Nixon, 2011), and decolonial ecology (Ferdinand, 2019) to situate the literary imagination within a longer history of socio-ecological transformation initiated by the plantation system (Funes Monzote, 2026)