Hybridizing the Destruction of Nature and Pauline Melville’s Erzulie

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Recommended: Importance of ecocriticism in literature

“Erzulie”, a short story written by Pauline Melville, illustrates an important theme in Caribbean literature. The story is an example of literature that uses a strong theme of nature in the text and displays environmental symbolism throughout. The main theme in Caribbean literature is seen as the struggles of indigenous people and the consequences they face after the islands were colonized, however other themes such as post-colonial environmental harm can be seen in stories such as “Erzulie”. You can see a similarity between the natives and the island itself. The native’s suffer from social wrongs and suppression and the land of the Guyana country is also suppressed in a sense and destroyed as a consequence of colonialism. Melville’s use of nature and environmental symbolism can be seen prominently when reading the short story with ecocriticism awareness. While most symbolism and themes aren’t at the surface level of a story, some themes can be even more hidden within the text. In this essay I will further illustrate how the goal of Melville’s work changes when you read it with an ecocritical mind. Reader’s can now realize the importance of Guyana, not only because of its relationship with the author, but also because of its environmental damage that was caused by colonialism. You can also see that the character Erzulie was not only used as the protagonist to create a frightening female murderess, but she is a representation of the land of Guyana. Lastly, Melville’s language is enlightening in the evolving theme of nature that is seen from beginning to end.
Guyana is the former British Colony on the South American Coast that received its independence in 1966 from the United Kingdom [4]. It’s one of the only Caribbean countri...

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...ndation, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
5. Heise, Ursula K. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ecocriticism." PMLA (2006): 503-516.
6. Kahn, Aliyah. "Nations of Eden: Race and Ecology in the Post-Pastoral Caribbean." Research Projects. Aliyah Kahn, 2013. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
7. McLeod, John. "Cultural Models of Creolization." The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. London: Routledge, 2007. 102-03. Print.
8. Melville, Pauline. “Erzulie”, in The Migration of Ghosts, pp. 140–41.
9. Pyne-Timothy, Helen. "Reading the Signs in Pauline Melville's" Erzulie"." Journal of Haitian Studies (2001): 136-147.
10. Ramraj, Robert. "The Omai Disaster in Guyana." Gamma Theta Upsilon. Gamma Theta Uppsilon, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
11. Renk, Kathleen Williams. "“Magic that Battles Death”: Pauline Melville's Marvellous Realism." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 44.1 (2009): 101-115.

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