This dissertation examines contemporary literature from South Asia and Eastern Africa to explore how narratives of war and climate crisis reshape our understanding of survival, care, and belonging. Introducing the concept of the catastrophopic, it argues that Global South literature offers powerful frameworks for ecological responsibility and collective world-making.
2026
This thesis examines representations of “strangeness” in The Tempest and their historical roots in medieval travel writing and early colonial exploration. By analyzing how Shakespeare constructs fear and fascination toward unfamiliar places and peoples, the research argues that strangeness is not inherent, but psychologically and culturally produced.