Poetics of Environmental Justice in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead

Abstract

This paper analyses Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead: A Novel (1991) as a critique of mainstream environmental practices. In particular, the paper explores the concept of Environmental Justice within the context of Native American communities in the U.S. Environmental Justice movement refers to environmental racism and inequality towards the marginalized groups. Silko’s novel illustrates this problem in the context of Native American tribes. The novel explores an unequal environmental treatment of the Native American tribes through the discussion of uranium mining and highlights its traumatic impact on the indigenous people. The study utilizes a conceptual framework based in Ecocriticism and Environmental Justice drawing on the works of Cheryll Glotfelty and Joni Adamson respectively. The relationship of indigenous literatures and environment brings to fore the emergence of Environmental Justice approach which traces how indigenous American communities are “othered” in mainstream environmental practices.