Bridging Feminism and Ecology: An Ecofeminist Reading of “Lagoon” by Nnedi Okorafor

This thesis provides an ecofeminist reading of Nnedi Okorafor’s "Lagoon" with an examination of how her novel engages with ecological, gendered, and sociopolitical concerns within a postcolonial Nigerian context. "Lagoon’s" deconstruction of binary dualisms such as human/nonhuman, men/women, and nature/culture is investigated through a critical synthesis of ecofeminism, intersectionality, postcolonialism, and posthumanism. Furthermore, this thesis deploys a qualitative, interpretive methodology which is rooted in close textual analysis of the narrative strategies, symbolism, character constructions, and spatial dynamics of "Lagoon." Okorafor’s disorientation of linear histories and rigid identities by employing speculative fiction to promote alternative ecological and social arrangements is extensively examined. This thesis first explores the development of ecofeminism as its historical progress, theoretical expansion, key debates, ecofeminist literary criticism, and its convergence with speculative fiction’s world-making capacities. It also examines the value of intersectional feminist and posthumanist ideas in developing a method that takes into account the diversity of lived experiences and power dynamics. This thesis focuses on ecological agency as well as feminine resistance, and the extraterrestrial presence as a catalyst for sociocultural disruption as well as renewal. It further scrutinizes popular culture as music, masquerades, oral storytelling, the depiction of Lagos as an urban space, and queer politics and characters with an analysis of the intersection of gender, class, sexuality, and religion present in "Lagoon" in order to mirror and contest systems of control. "Lagoon" not only criticizes dominant patterns of control and exploitation but it also imagines transformative possibilities imbued with relationality, hybridity, and justice. This thesis concludes that "Lagoon" affirms the transformative potential of speculative fiction, serving as both a literary and a political act, in addition to positioning literature as a vital site for rethinking human and nonhuman relations in the Anthropocene.