Ecological Crisis and Oil Capitalism in Mudun Al-Milh: an Ecocritical Reading

Abstract

This study, titled “The Ecological Crisis and Oil Capitalism in Mudun al-Milh: An Ecocritical Reading”, examines the intersection of literature, environmental degradation, and capitalism through Abdurrahman Munif’s Mudun al-Milh: Al-Tih. It addresses the ecological crisis triggered by the rise of oil capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula, which disrupts the symbiotic relationship between indigenous communities and their environment. Using Greg Garrard’s ecocritical framework, this study analyzes how oil capitalism operates as a destructive force driving environmental and social transformation. Employing a qualitative descriptive method based on close reading and textual analysis, it explores the novel’s depiction of pre-oil oases, the intrusion of foreign extraction industries, and the resulting ecological collapse. The findings indicate that oil capitalism systematically transforms natural landscapes from pastoral environments into arid, apocalyptic spaces. This degradation is evident in deforestation, desertification, water pollution, and climatic disruption. Through the concepts of the pastoral, the apocalypse, and dwelling, the study demonstrates that fossil fuel extraction not only produces ecological crisis but also enacts slow violence, eroding indigenous lifeways and replacing them with unsustainable urban structures.