An Ecocritical and Intersectional Exploration of Human and Non-Human Vulnerability

Abstract

Climate change is not merely a scientific or environmental phenomenon but also a cultural, ethical, and narrative crisis explored profoundly in contemporary literature. This study investigates how environmental degradation becomes embedded in human lives through literary texts, adopting an ecocritical and intersectional framework. Moving beyond empirical climate data, it examines how literature captures subtle, cumulative harms—what Rob Nixon describes as “slow violence”—particularly on marginalized communities. Through novels, climate fiction, indigenous storytelling, and postcolonial narratives, the research analyzes how environmental trauma reshapes human experience, ethical consciousness, and social awareness. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s concept of “sympoiesis,” the study emphasizes the portrayal of multispecies interdependence, planetary interconnectedness, and relational responsibility toward non-human life. It also explores how literature engages with readers, cultivating ecological imagination, empathy, and ethical reflection. Finally, the research highlights literature’s role in pedagogy, activism, and cultural discourse, showing how narrative forms translate scientific and sociopolitical crises into ethical, emotional, and cultural knowledge. By bridging ecological awareness, justice the study calls for a reimagining of literary studies as a space where human and non-human futures are critically engaged, ethically navigated, and creatively envisioned in the Anthropocene.