Towards Ecopedagogy: A Fiction-based Approach to the Teaching and Learning of the Environment

The contemporary world faces imminent environmental crises perpetrated by industrial and technological advancements, lethal warfare and neoliberal modes of development. The ecological concerns are gaining great academic attention all over the world. In this pursuit, the role of literature especially literary fiction in making visible as well as offering solutions to the escalating environmental crises cannot be overemphasized. This article, by showcasing and analyzing Uzma Aslam Khan’s novel Thinner than Skin (2012) as an ecopedagogical text, explores the implications for an education system that is mindful of the changing ecological conditions and offers the students a model for encountering and solving environmental issues afflicting the ecologically- vibrant northern areas of Pakistan. The article advances an educational philosophy that, by employing literary models and by using classroom as a forum,strives to give birth to an environmental consciousness that can provoke in the studentsa better understanding of the issues plaguing the physical and the living environment, paving the way for environmental praxis. As college and university students study literary characters’ interactions with the phenomena of nature, they become more aware of their own developing or deteriorating relationshipwith their physical and living environment. The paper examines how militarization and ecocidal development projects have disrupted the tranquil environment of northern Pakistan. Itfurther explicates the rationale and repercussions of the modern neoliberal and capitalist economy by examining the following processes: material and ideological co-optation of the environment within the rhetoric of development, deforestation, erosion of grazing land, shrinking and contamination of water bodies, and the impact of tourism on environmental stability.