Changing Rural Graphics and Feminist Readings in a Third World Locale: The Case of “Aathi”

Abstract

Development and environmental discourses are two sites that determine the Third world experience today. The paper maps the nuances associated with the emerging feminist narratives that are concerned with the degenerating ecologies and the feminine side of the same. While development feeds on the memories of underdevelopment it also creates nostalgias, protests, marginalizes subjectivities and a new time of degeneracy where environment is all over the discussions. The well-known Malayalam writer Sara Joseph’s novel “Aathi” is discussed here in order to understand how the feminist articulation of concerns around environmental degradation leads to new geographies to resistance.