Eco-Folkloristics and the Subaltern Body: Ecology, Memory and Resistance in Sheela Tomy’s Valli

Abstract

Abstract

DOI: https://doi.org/10.82471/px3ve-p9z25

Ecological degradation and subaltern marginalisation are two issues that have not been adequately explored in the context of the literary analysis of indigenous narratives. Although the current body of knowledge about Sheela Tomy’s Valli addresses eco-criticism, folklore, and gender, they are not commonly discussed as interdependent systems that influence the narrative. To overcome this gap, this paper elaborates an interdisciplinary model that incorporates eco-subalternity, eco-feminism, and eco-folkloristics to examine how the novel constructs relations among land, body, and memory. This analysis shows that Valli is not only used as a setting but also as a storehouse of environmental recollection, where a shift in the environment leads to the loss of native identity and knowledge systems. At the same time, folklore is also a vital epistemological model that codifies ecological information and perpetuates culture by myth, ritual, and narrative. These forms of narratives serve as other archives that oppose mainstream ecological and historical discourses.

This paper also postulates that the subaltern body, especially that of the Adivasi women, is a location where ecological exploitation is experienced and challenged. The novel shows the reinforcing relationship between environmental degradation and social marginalisation by connecting land and body. In this light, Valli criticises capitalist modernity and anthropocentric paradigms, and predicts resistance to indigenous ecological knowledge.

The paper finally establishes folklore as a form of ecological awareness and the subaltern body as a site of memory, agency and survival in the disputed environmental spaces.

References

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