Slow Violence and Urban Decay: A Nixonian Eco-Critical Close Reading of Abbas’s The Empty Room

Abstract

This study critically examines representations of urban decay in The Empty Room through Rob Nixon’s concepts of slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. It addresses how environmental degradation in urban settings becomes normalized and invisible, despite its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. Using a qualitative eco-critical close reading of the text, the study analyzes how the novel depicts gradual environmental decline through infrastructural breakdown, spatial confinement, and ecological neglect. The findings show that urban decay functions as slow violence, affecting disadvantaged urban communities incrementally and persistently. The analysis further reveals that environmental degradation is closely tied to class inequality and postcolonial urban conditions, exposing the links between ecological and social vulnerability. The study contributes to eco-critical and postcolonial environmental scholarship by showing how literary representations of urban space can make hidden forms of environmental injustice visible.