Critical Ecofeminism in Amitav Ghosh’s Fiction: From The Hungry Tide to Gun Island

Abstract

In recent times, creative fiction has increasingly been read as a framework for thinking about the world and the environment. This article argues that Amitav Ghosh’s novels set in the Sundarbans, namely The Hungry Tide and especially its sequel Gun Island reflect the author’s critical views about the impending need to improve the relationship between the human world and the natural one. Both novels use as centres of the plot female protagonists of different generations and backgrounds, who provide a critical perspective on and knowledge of this process. They are also (in different ways) at the same time protective of local traditions and progressive. In Ghosh’s own version of critical ecofeminism in the two novels, these women build a sustainable plan to protect and coexist with the Sundarbans. In his own narrative approach, Ghosh agrees with Vandana Shiva, Maria Mies and Greta Gaard’s complex discourse, ultimately meant, beyond feminism as such, to celebrate equality across all boundaries.