Abstract
In his work of non-fiction The Great Derangement (2016), Amitav Ghosh examines the inability of the present generation to grasp the scale of climate change in the spheres of Literature, History and Politics. The central premise in this work of non-fiction is based on the statement that literature will one day be accused of its complicity with the great derangement and of blind acceptance of the climate crisis. This paper will study how Ghosh’s fictional and non-fictional enterprise voices a call for more imaginative and cultural forms of fiction that articulate resistance against materialism that can destroy our planet. We shall see how Ghosh’s fictional enterprise falls within the sphere of postcolonial eco-criticism that considers the phenomenon of “material eco-criticism”. I shall also reveal Ghosh’s environmental advocacy in his works of fiction, The Ibis Trilogy and The Hungry Tide. This paper will analyze how the Ibis Trilogy is not just an exploration of the particularly heinous operation of imperial power leading up to the Opium Wars but is also an eco-critical narrative that articulates resistance against the violence of climate change. A study of The Hungry Tide will also reveal how this hybrid literary text is both a historical account of the Marichjhapi massacre and a plea to preserve the eco-system of our time. I shall thus consider the challenges that climate change poses for the postcolonial writer and the evolving grid of literary forms that shape the narrative imagination.
Highlights
In his work of non-fiction The Great Derangement (2016), Amitav Ghosh examines the inability of the present generation to grasp the scale of climate change in the spheres of Literature, History and Politics
Eco-Criticism, whereby he offers a new perspective of concerns and debates that affect the world at Amitav Ghosh is a contemporary Indian diasporic writer who resides in New York and teaches at Colombia University
Ghosh’s fictional enterprise falls within the sphere of postcolonial eco-criticism that explores the problems of conserving biodiversity, distrusts the grandeur of empty statements and hypocritical rhetoric in the name of Free Trade, and highlights how postcolonial literature is rich in discursive formulations and the stories of narrative matter replete with their material mesh of meanings that can serve as signifying forces
Summary
In his fiction and non-fiction, Ghosh explores the problems of conserving biodiversity, distrusts materialistic forces that plunder the planet’s natural resources, and takes part in the new emerging paradigm of making a material turn, considering possible ways to analyze language and reality, human and nonhuman life, mind and matter, without falling into dichotomous patterns of thinking. Eco-Criticism, whereby he offers a new perspective of concerns and debates that affect the world at Amitav Ghosh is a contemporary Indian diasporic writer who resides in New York and teaches at Colombia University. He was the recipient of the Crossword Book Prize for The Hungry Tide in 2004. Ghosh’s fictional enterprise falls within the sphere of postcolonial eco-criticism that explores the problems of conserving biodiversity, distrusts the grandeur of empty statements and hypocritical rhetoric in the name of Free Trade, and highlights how postcolonial literature is rich in discursive formulations and the stories of narrative matter replete with their material mesh of meanings that can serve as signifying forces. His fiction enables the reader to identify himself with the central premise of articulating resistance against the colonialist materialistic forces of a global imperium
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