Beyond the developmental narrative of postcolonial nation-time: The Materialities of Water and Geological Faultlines in Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes of Longing

Abstract

This chapter explores how Shubhangi Swarup’s novel Latitudes of Longing (2018) breaks out of the developmental narrative of nation-time into an exploration of the impressions of deep time in which events impact human consciousness on a planetary scale. Focusing on a geological framework that structures the novel this chapter will tease out the underlying connections across the bioregion of South and Southeast Asia, otherwise fraught with political and military violence, and link them to stories that characters tell each other. It will further show how the act of storytelling embedded in the narrative acts as a means of discovering empathy with what is seemingly an invisible presence of the “more-than-human” that influences their lives. In keeping with this Special issue’s theme this chapter aims to shift the view of ecological solidarity as one that goes beyond the idea of an event horizon imagined as catastrophe and destruction and moves towards reading this novel as a way of conceiving solidarity as a deep geological and historical connection.