Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article presents a postcolonial ecocritical reading of three major works by Etel Adnan and examines how experiences of displacement inform her understanding of identity and her critique of anthropocentric worldviews. It argues that Adnan’s sustained engagement with the natural world allows her to reconceptualize the self as relational and embedded, rather than autonomous or sovereign. In distancing herself from identity formations rooted in fixed locales or exclusionary cultural frameworks, particularly those shaped by war and political conflict, Adnan turns to nature as a source of belonging and ethical orientation. Drawing on Susan Clayton’s concept of environmental identity, the article demonstrates how this form of identification cultivates responsibility toward both human and nonhuman worlds. The study ultimately suggests that Adnan’s work illuminates the capacity of dislocated subjects to articulate environmentally attentive modes of identity that support ecological awareness and collective responsibility.
Source: Cogent Arts and Humanities
Author: Ohoud Othman Almaneea
Institution: Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,165
OpenAlex ID: W7128428414