WOMEN-NATURE NARRATIVE AND PATRIARCHAL VIOLENCE: AN ECOFEMINIST CRITIQUE OF UZMA ASLAM KHAN’S TRESPASSING

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to study Uzma Aslam Khan’s Trespassing (2003) from an ecofeminist perspective. It probes the women-nature analogy and its representation. In the text, the female protagonist realizes the gap between feminine natural self and their social construction when encountering with nature. In the same vein, the study also foregrounds the degradation of land and its consequences on human existence. For its theoretical underpinning, this study relies on ecofeminism with an exclusive focus on female subjectivity as an agency that is altered by interacting with fauna and flora. Moreover, it discusses the relationship between women and nature that how they represent each other in misogynic culture. The language, events and characters in this novel reflect a world that represents both femininity and nature. The text ponders at nature as an agency that has social and political interactions linked with women. It inquires the emotional, social, cultural and psychological dimensions of female characters and its correlation with nature. The novel shapes female self through interacting with flora and fauna. It also analyzes the impacts of disruption in natural habitat on female. This research work will be useful for ecofeminist subjects in literary writings. It is significant for future researcher as it comprehends the relationship of women and nature and shows destructive vision of modernity.