A MOTHER WHO SLAUGHTERED, A DAUGHTER WHO SURVIVED Embodied Knowledge, Ecofeminist Resistance, and Slow Violence in Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones

This thesis analyzes Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (2011) through an ecofeminist and intersectional lens, arguing that climate fiction exposes how ecological crises disproportionately affect marginalized communities. Ward links Hurricane Katrina to the embodied vulnerability of Esch, a young Black girl in rural Mississippi, revealing how race, gender, and class shape experiences of a catastrophe. At the same time, the novel reimagines survival through resilience, maternal strength, and interdependence with the nonhuman world. By foregrounding marginalized voices, this thesis demonstrates how Ward challenges Western-centered climate narratives and suggests that a better tomorrow must begin from those at the margins.