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Abstract

This article examines the representation of the Aral Sea crisis in Final Respects by the Kazakh writer Abdijamil Nurpeisov through the lens of postcolonial ecocriticism, drawing particularly on the concept of ecological imperialism. It argues that the novel represents the Aral Sea not simply as an environmental catastrophe, but as a peripheral space transformed by Soviet modernization and the unequal power relations that sustained it.

The article shows that the large-scale irrigation projects and cotton monoculture policies that led to the desiccation of the Aral Sea reflected a developmental model grounded in anthropocentrism and technological rationality. Rather than representing a natural disaster or an isolated policy failure, the novel portrays the Aral Sea crisis as the outcome of Soviet efforts to transform Central Asia into a cotton-producing region, regardless of the ecological costs borne by local communities. Through its depiction of ecological collapse, displacement, bodily suffering, and social disintegration, the novel reveals how Soviet modernization depended upon the ecological sacrifice of peripheral territories in order to sustain the developmental priorities of the imperial center.

The article further examines how imperial power operated through the unequal distribution of authority over knowledge and environmental decision-making. By portraying the interactions between state officials, technical experts, and local communities, Final Respects reveals how peripheral populations were excluded from decisions that profoundly shaped their environment and everyday lives, producing conditions of subaltern voicelessness. Simultaneously, the novel depicts fragmented and internally contradictory forms of local resistance that remain constrained by the ideological and institutional structures of Soviet rule.

Through its portrayal of ecological collapse and its consequences for local communities, Final Respects offers a literary perspective on Soviet ecological imperialism and highlights the value of postcolonial ecocriticism for understanding environmental change in Central Asia.