Anthroparchic Gynocide/Genocide vs. Capitalist Patriarchy: An Ecofeminist Reading of Zadie Smith’s “Two Men Arrive in a Village”

Authors: nargesmontakhab@gmail.com
Babak Ashrafkhani Limoudehi, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Narges Montakhabi Bakhtvar, Islamic Azad University (Central Tehran Branch), Iran
Email: nargesmontakhab@gmail.com
Published: December 14, 2020
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijl.9.2.07

Citation: Limoudehi, B. A., & Bakhtvar, N. M. (2020). Anthroparchic Gynocide/Genocide vs. Capitalist Patriarchy: An Ecofeminist Reading of Zadie Smith’s “Two Men Arrive in a Village” IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijl.9.2.07


Abstract

This essay examines the representations of feminine subjugation in Zadie Smith’s “Two Men Arrive in a Village” through the lens of ecofeminism. It reveals how the issue of female exploitation is considered as a correlate of the deterioration of the environment. The essay argues that Smith’s short story allows us to see how patriarchal, capitalist, and imperialist systems work in tandem to illustrate how the destruction of land and the abuse of women are part of the same ideological enterprise. It investigates the influence of industrialization and patriarchal capitalist invasion through the metaphor of raping. Domination of the marginal and objectification of the women/nature provide considerable ecological, social, and cultural implications. The interpretations prove how exploitation of nature and women, invasion, instrumentalism and class discrimination are characteristics of patriarchal system which have made a correlation between anthroparchic gynocide/ genocide and androcentric patriarchy.

Keywords

Anthroparchy, Capitalism, Ecofeminism, Patriarchy, Short Story, Zadie Smith