Ecology of the Aftermath: Dis/Placed identities in Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows and Home Fire

Abstract

The research aims to conduct a thorough textual study of Shamsie’s novels Burnt Shadows (2009) and Home Fire (2017) to elaborate the notion that the concept of environment is not just limited to the bounds of Nature.  The study is an attempt to explore the notion that environment in the ongoing era is a man-made entity, while keeping in view the concepts of environmental justice and its representations through the use of ecologically inspired narrative structures.  The historical settings of the novels make it impossible to deny the fact that changes in the social environment do have an adverse effect on the characters, especially the women and the future generations who live through these experiences.  The study asserts that human beings are playing an active role in creating the environment in such ways that it meets their desired goals, and often the global south ends up paying the price for the wars which originate outside their borders.  The end goal of the paper is to show how a fictionalized story allows us to place what can be ostensibly a regional event into more global terms.