ABSTRACT
The present paper proposes reflections upon the perspective of ecocritical thought based on the reading of the short stories “A palmeira de Nguézi” and “O embondeiro que sonhava pássaros” by Mia Couto. By revealing the importance of the tree as a sacred symbol in the tales, the Mozambican writer presents connections of ancestry through a worldview that inseparably integrates the human and nature. The intergenerational legacy of diverse cultures belonging to traditional peoples around the world has been affected by negative interference in the environment dictated by colonizing processes. In this scenario, in which ancestral knowledge is included, we highlight the Chthulucene proposed by Donna Haraway in which “we are at stake to each other". We highlight the importance of the themes related to the geological times proposed by Paul Crutzen (Anthropocene), Jason Moore (Capitalocene), and Donna Haraway (Chthulucene), as well as issues of otherness when referencing the becoming-vegetable represented in the tales of Mia Couto as an inseparable human and nature relationship. In front of the perspective, we sought to bring to light the ecocritical discourse, anchored in the Chthulucene, the rescue of the Mozambican ancestry connected with “A palmeira de Nguézi” and “O embondeiro que sonhava pássaros”. Considering the transdisciplinarity in the literary and environmental context, the tales analyzed point to the intrinsic relationship between human and nature and awaken to a better understanding of human actions concerning otherness and decolonial reflections.
Keywords:
Literature and environment; Mia Couto; Ecocriticism; Otherness; Decoloniality of nature