DIGITAL HUMANITIES, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND ECOLOGICAL POWER: AN ECOCRITICAL READING OF PRAYAG AKBAR’S LEILA

Abstract

This paper explores the intersection of Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in literary studies through the exclusive theoretical framework of ecocriticism. It argues that AI-driven methodologies, when ecocritically situated, offer new ways of understanding how contemporary literature represents environmental degradation, resource control, and ecological violence. Using Prayag Akbar’s dystopian novel Leila as a primary case study, the paper demonstrates how ecological crisis is inseparable from technological surveillance and authoritarian governance. By combining ecocritical close reading with AI-assisted digital humanities methods such as thematic mapping and pattern recognition, the study proposes a model of “digital ecocriticism” that expands the scope of literary interpretation while remaining ethically and theoretically grounded.