Gendered Bodily Control, Trauma, and Ecological Symbolism: An Ecofeminist Reading of The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman
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Objective: This study aimed to examine how Sagnik Datta’s The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman represents the interconnected oppression of women and nature through an ecofeminist critical framework.
Methods and Materials: A qualitative interpretive design was used, grounded in ecofeminist literary criticism. The primary text was Datta’s short story The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman (2018). Secondary sources included scholarly works on ecofeminism, feminist theory, postcolonial criticism, and environmental studies. The theoretical framework drew on the ecofeminist perspectives of Karen J. Warren, Val Plumwood, Greta Gaard, and Vandana Shiva. Data were generated through close textual reading, thematic coding, contextual interpretation, and comparative analysis. Passages related to domination, objectification, ecological vulnerability, patriarchal control, commodification, and female resistance were identified and interpreted.
Findings: The analysis showed that Usha’s coerced pregnancy functions as a central metaphor for the simultaneous exploitation of female bodies and nature. The main themes included gendered bodily control, surveillance, loss of autonomy, severance from nature, religious and cultural legitimization of patriarchal authority, commodification of the female body, symbolic violence, and constrained resistance. Usha’s transformation into a public spectacle illustrated how patriarchal systems convert women’s bodies into objects of social, religious, and economic control. The narrative also linked bodily oppression with ecological domination, showing that both women and nature are treated as passive resources under patriarchal symbolic orders.
Conclusion: Datta’s story exposes the structural links between gender oppression and environmental domination. It highlights the need to challenge patriarchal systems that exploit both women and nature.
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