Oil Perturbs Busalmeh: Climate Trauma in Ahl-e Gharq

Oil Perturbs Busalmeh: Climate Trauma in Ahl-e Gharq

Considered a major concern in the aftermath of 9/11 incident, trauma has invaded contemporary literature and cinema to a great deal. As a new vein in trauma studies, pretraumatic anxieties are embedded in futurist-oriented works of literature. The genre of science fiction has mainly adopted elements of pretrauma that has mediated traumatic apprehensions on the psyche of its consumers. This essay introduces Ahl-e gharq, a petro-novel by Iranian woman novelist, Moniru Ravanipour, and argues that this novel`s magical-realist style is entrenched in painstaking pretrumatic considerations. This involvement with pretrauma stresses the novel`s pronounced attentiveness to environmental traumatic repercussions and ecological devastations. Set before the events of 9/11, this trauma-stricken novel embodies the passage from the pre-oil phase of ignorance to the discovery and excavation of oil that leads to catastrophe. This essay also discusses that the novel`s deep-seated socio-political consciousness puts into query, as well as prefigures the later attacks on capitalism`s lack of heed to Anthropocene, and environmentality. Consequently, climate dystopia manifested in the setting of Jofre, a remote village on the shores of the Persian Gulf stresses the experience of oil to be involved in its ingrained degradation rather than development that is predominantly related to the phenomenon of pretrauma.

Considered a major concern in the aftermath of 9/11 incident, trauma has invaded contemporary literature and cinema to a great deal. As a new vein in trauma studies, pretraumatic anxieties are embedded in futurist-oriented works of literature. The genre of science fiction has mainly adopted elements of pretrauma that has mediated traumatic apprehensions on the psyche of its consumers. This essay introduces Ahl-e gharq, a petro-novel by Iranian woman novelist, Moniru Ravanipour, and argues that this novel`s magical-realist style is entrenched in painstaking pretrumatic considerations. This involvement with pretrauma stresses the novel`s pronounced attentiveness to environmental traumatic repercussions and ecological devastations. Set before the events of 9/11, this trauma-stricken novel embodies the passage from the pre-oil phase of ignorance to the discovery and excavation of oil that leads to catastrophe. This essay also discusses that the novel`s deep-seated socio-political consciousness puts into query, as well as prefigures the later attacks on capitalism`s lack of heed to Anthropocene, and environmentality. Consequently, climate dystopia manifested in the setting of Jofre, a remote village on the shores of the Persian Gulf stresses the experience of oil to be involved in its ingrained degradation rather than development that is predominantly related to the phenomenon of pretrauma.