Published Paper Details:

Abstract: The ever mutating sphere of literary criticism gets updated with innovative ideologies which open up spaces for further analysis of the existing theories in a different light with reference to the newly emerging ones. Postcolonial Ecocriticism is such a field of study incorporating both the subject matters of the two distinct areas of study: Postcolonialism, which is the reclaiming and relocating the past of the colonies and Ecocriticism that propagates an analysis of the role and portrayal of nature in literary genres. Postcolonialism being anthropocentric in its inclination appears to study only the crisis and issues related to culture and human beings which deviates from accepting nature as a significant phenomenon. But the essence of Nature is undeniable in the process of formation of a distinct culture or a society. It is even overlooked that the nature also undergoes colonization simultaneously with the colonization of a country. Ecocriticism from a postcolonial perspective directly advocates the idea that nature must be regarded as a whole entity including man, living and non living organisms, culture, and society and so on. Moreover, it argues that nature is facing threats due to industrialization, population blast, global warming and human greed for more satisfaction and comfort through material means resulting in the endangerment of the 'wilderness' of nature. Consequently, sustainability must be our lone concern while performing any act upon the nature. Reef by the Sri Lanka born author Romesh Gunesekera is a pleasing narrative centered on the story of Triton, a servant to a marine biologist Mr. Salgado. The marine ecosystem in its depleting form remains the principle concern of research to Mr. Salgado beyond which the political upheavals caused by traumatic eventfulness led to a bitter catastrophic experience in the country. This paper attempts to analyze the novel from a postcolonial ecocritical point of view imbibing the diasporic disposition.