Exploring Environmental Uncanny and Climate Crisis
in the Anthropocene: An Ecocritical Study in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island
Ukil Mahato,
Ph.D. Research Scholar,
Department of English,
C.M.P. Degree College, a Constituent P.G. College of University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India
&
Dr. Neeti Agarwal Saran,
Assistant Professor,
Department of English,
C.M.P. Degree College, a Constituent P.G. College of University of Allahabad,
Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract:
Literary texts function as a response to
environmental imagination. In the Anthropocene (the new age of humans), the
world is grappling with environmental degradation, and ecological disruption.
This paper explores the environmental uncanny, and climate crisis of the
Anthropocene in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun
Island (2019). This paper attempts to explicate the severe ecological
uncanny, the effect of the global precarious climate crisis, depicting how the
fragile, and vulnerable ecosystem of the Sundarbans terrain impacts the
entanglement of humans, and non-human beings. This paper further engages in the
intersection of literature, myth, and environmental discourse, highlighting the
intricate relationship between human beings, and the natural world. By
analyzing environmental, and mythological narratives, it seeks to examine
unsettling, and uncanny atmosphere in the physical world. This study posits
that anthropogenic activities disrupt the human beings’ eternal bonding with
nature, deeply rooted in Ecocriticism.
In the
Anthropocene, human beings' have made domination and exploitation over nature,
resulting significant transformation of the ecological and geological dimensions
of the planet. Ecocritical and environmental approaches are employed to
interpret the text on the perspectives of ecological uncanny, and climate
crisis. This paper reveals unfamiliar and uncanny experiences due to
destructive climate crisis, and ecological catastrophe. Finally, this study
focuses on the pathways for environmental stewardship, and ecological
resilience in the larger domains of nature, and myth.
Keywords: Environmental Uncanny, Climate crisis,
Anthropocene, Ecocriticism, Environmental degradation, Nature
Introduction
Environmental
uncanny is a broader concept in the field of Environmental humanities. Climate
crisis, ecological catastrophe, and deforestation have created the uncanniness
in the environment. In the Anthropocene Epoch, anthropogenic activities have
irreversibly altered the geology and ecology of the planet, causing
unprecedented degradation of the pristine nature. Environmental uncanny is a
critical approach rooted in interdisciplinary study that explores the
representation of the strange atmosphere. It incorporates earthly and emotional
aspects elaborated in literary texts on the impact of the climate crisis in the
Anthropocene. The Anthropocene epoch is correlated with ecological uncanny.
Climate change is recognized as an ecological uncanny and unsettling experience
that makes all living and non-living beings fragile. It affects and transforms
all physical features of the Earth’s atmosphere. Uncanny is a concept that
repeatedly appeared in the works of Sigmund Freud and Heidegger. They
deliberately use it to describe what is not familiar to all objects and beings.
Uncanny refers to strange, unfamiliar, and unsettling feelings, experiences, or
objects that are quite different from familiar scenarios. Its essence is
transformed into an awkward-looking thing that deeply perceives the changes in
our environment. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines “Uncanny”
as ‘strange and difficult to explain’ (1696). It is generally associated with
the tropes of uncomfortable, frightening, and weird ambience. Uncanny is
appropriately used to suggest the catastrophic situation and serious
repercussions of the environment. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychoanalyst, in
his famous essay The Uncanny (das Unheimliche, 1919 in German)
articulates “There is no doubt that this (uncanny) belongs to the realm of the
frightening, of what evokes fear and dread” (123). He delineates the notion of
the uncanny thoroughly, how fear and eerie atmosphere evoke unhomely feelings.
Human intervention in the natural world drastically changes the planetary
system and leads to a terrifying situation. Freud further points out, “It(the
uncanny)seems obvious that something should be frightening precisely because it
is unknown and unfamiliar” (124-25). Uncanny evokes fear and dreadful emotions.
Ecological
malaise evokes unfamiliar experience and unhomely recognition of a particular
place or environment. Freud uses the term specifically “to signify a feeling of
discomfort and strangeness arising in the self without warning” (Wolfreys 240).
This entails a shocking realization of the ecological disruption in the
human-governed Anthropocene epoch. The magnitude of the climate crisis has
reached a condition beyond imagination on a planetary scale. Industrialization,
Urbanization, and capitalism are human-centric activities that have transformed
into an epoch of the Anthropocene. Heidegger views that the uncanny, a philosophical
concept, corroborates on the ground of ontological aspects. The ecological
uncanny creates an awful ambience in the human and non-human world and
undermines the entire ecosystem. Ecological uncanny is a part of environmental
literature that provides strange outlook to the natural world. It has emerged
through evolving escalated climate crisis.“The uncanny is the vehicle and
vector that enacts this intimacy- whether it is searched for or not” (Giblett
4). Giblett gives a relational concept of uncanny which links between vehicle
and vector.
Literature is a
powerful medium of expressing environmental issues through the literary texts.
It is profoundly interrelated with environmental discourse. Ecocriticism is an
emerging interdisciplinary field that sensitizes natural world. It is
ecologically privileged concept that focuses on the amicable relationship
between humans and the non-human world. The acclaimed literary scholar, William
Rueckert coined the very term “Ecocriticism” in 1978 in his essay Literature
and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism and defines suitably that it
isan “application of ecology and ecological concepts to the study of
literature” (Rueckert107). The Ecological and ecocritical approaches reinforce reverence,
and appreciation of nature, promoting ecological consciousness for the
protection of the environment for the betterment of all living, and non-living
beings. Cheryll Glotfelty advances the theoretical concept of Ecocriticism to reshape
ecological literary discourse. Her fundamental depiction of this study is to analyse
the reciprocity between literature and environmental discourse in a broader
perspective. Glotfelty defines Ecocriticism as:
The
study of the relationship between literature and the physical Environment. Just
as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender-conscious
perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production
and economic class to its reading of texts, ecocriticism takes an earth-centered
approach to literary studies. (xviii)
Ecocriticism
is an eco-centric concept that interprets the reciprocity between literary and
environmental discourse.
Every living and non-living being is connected with each other to enhance
ecological balance. In theFirst Law of Ecology, Barry Commoner states that
“Everything is connected to everything else” (29). He tries to put forward how
the actors in an ecosystem depend on each other. However, ecological
catastrophe interrupts the harmonious entanglement among the biotic and a
biotic components and creates strange intimacy. Commoner further articulates in
The Closing Circle, “Environmental deterioration is caused by human
action and exerts painful effects on the human condition. The environmental
crisis is therefore not only an ecological problem, but also a social one. This
adds to the intrinsic complexity of the ecosphere the further complications of
human activities” (109).The environmental crisis brings a dangerous situation
to the human world and the natural world, promoting uncanny appearance. Human
activities contribute to the dilemma of the human and non-human world.
Amitav Ghosh’s Gun
Island (2019) is a prominent novel that exemplifies environmental uncanny
in the 21st-century climate crisis. In an age gripped with climate change, “Uncanny
is strangely familiar and familiarly strange” (Irwin 18).Uncanny provides an
enigmatic experience to the physical world. The ecological interruption calls
forth mixed feelings of familiar or homely, and unfamiliar or unhomely.
Environmental
Uncanny and Alarming Climate Change in the novel Gun Island
Gun Island
revolves around the predominant themes of environmental crisis, deterioration
of animals, creatures like dolphins, desertification of mangrove forest, ecological
disturbance, and retelling of the Bengali myth Manasa Devi. The characters of
the novel encounter a series of uncanny confrontations. For example, Dinanath
wonders to see the structural temple of Manasa Devi in the deep forest of the
Sundarbans and also the hood of the snake inside the temple; Piyali staggers to
observe that the pods of Irrawaddy dolphins are diminished; Rafi and Tipu,
climate refugees obtain the knowledge of uncanny in the foreign lands including
Venice. The climate migration is a global problem that arises out of horrendous
climate change.“In other words, to think of climate change as the principal
cause of contemporary migration is to ignore a great variety of historical,
social, and technological factors that are acting as accelerants of global
population flows” (Ghosh, Wild Fictions8-9). The Climate calamity
transforms the ways of living of both humans and non-human beings. It is the
high time to address the global challenges like the climate change, and
reimagine in the domains of the environmental discourse.
The
novel is set in multiple places beyond national boundaries, starting in the
city of Kolkata, to the Sundarbans, the coastal Bay of Bengal in India, and
subsequently Los Angeles in America, and Venice in Italy. The Sundarbans, the
world’s largest Mangrove forest, has now turned into a vulnerable and
precarious ecosystem. The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Dinanath Datta
(Deen), is a prominent Indian American rare book dealer and “Asian antiquities”
expert who lives in Brooklyn. He is fascinated to see the beautiful mangrove
forest of the Sundarbans. He seeks to rediscover the mysterious Bengali legend
of Manasa Devi, the goddess of snakes and other poisonous creatures, and the
Bonduki Sadagar (the Gun Merchant). He gains several uncanny experiences and
dreadful situations. This myth is closely connected with nature. The
description of Manasa Devi provides the uncanny atmosphere. “The strange thing
about this little temple is that the legend that’s associated with it was only
meant to be passed down from mouth to mouth”(Ghosh, Gun Island 126-27).
The amalgamation of myth, nature, and ecology delineates the environmental
uncanny. He also meets with his aunt Nilima Bose, who lives in Lusibari, a
fictional Island in the Sundarbans. She operates the Badabon Trust, a
charitable organization (NGO) that provides healthcare and relief to
flood-affected people. Chand Sadagar had built the shrine (Dhaam) dedicated to
Manasa Devi in the 17th century in the tiger-infested deep mangrove forest of
the Sundarbans. Her temple is built at the confluence of land, forest, and the
vast sea in harmony with nature. Deen is amazed to spot the structure of the
shrine of Manasa Devi. This temple has many artistic similarities with the
terracotta temple of Bishnupur.
Another
compelling episode is that Piyali Roy (Piya), a Bengali-American cetologist who
teaches in Oregon, visits the Sundarbans for research on the endangered
Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris). She ultimately receives support from
an illiterate fisherman, Fokir, to undertake a sea voyage on a boat to conduct
her research. She uses binoculars for tracking the exact location of the
dolphins. She initially wonders and discovers that pods of the freshwater
dolphin population have been slackening due to ecological disruption. According
to Piya, eutrophication is responsible for the destruction of aquatic animals,
resulting in an ecological crisis. Every organism dies due to low oxygen, which
Piya has termed “dead zones” (Ghosh, Gun Island 95). The climate crisis
is really uncanny. Climate change has reached a tipping point that toxifies all
living and non-living beings in the ecosystem. Witnessing such an ecological
claustrophobia, Piya feels unsettling and strange in the Sundarbans delta.
George Marshall, an environmental thinker, articulates that “Climate change is
inherently uncanny: weather conditions, and the high carbon lifestyles that are
changing them, are extremely familiar and yet have now been given a new menace
and uncertainty” (ch.18). The Sundarbans landscape and the seascape have made a
sea change and generally incorporate the emotions of unfamiliarity and
uneasiness due to the climate disaster. Several species, including plants and
aquatic creatures, are on the verge of extinction.
Representation
of Nature, Mythology, and Environmental Uncanny
This
paper examines the intersection of traditional Bengali myth Manasa Devi and
Bonduki Sadagar, nature, and the environmental uncanny, encompassing a wide
range of unprecedented climate upheaval, ecological catastrophe, cultural
stigma in the Anthropocene, highlighting precarious global environmental
change. The study argues that the environmental uncanny is the product of
unstable and unprecedented climate change, irreversible alteration of the
planet’s ecology, underscoring effective emotional dimensions at the entanglement
of living and non-living beings. However, it closely relates to the reciprocal
or symbiotic relationship between nature and human beings, dedicated to
interdependence and interaction. Human intervention in the natural environment has
disrupted the essence of nature and looks strange.
The novel Gun Island discloses that the
Bengali legend narratives are interconnected with nature. Manasa Devi is the
symbol of feminine power and protector of human and non-human agency. She
controls the natural environment and preserves ecological balance and
resilience. The Bengali folklore narrative reimagines the legend of the Bonduki
Sadagar (the Gun Merchant) and Manasa Devi. This myth is woven into ‘Manasamangal
Kavya’, enriched with local and traditional knowledge. It is transmitted orally
from generation to generation. The Bengali communities are engaged in worship of
Manasa Devi. The Sundarbans is a vulnerable area, repeatedly hit by the climate
crisis and ecological disaster. The people of this area are victims of the
disastrous effects of climate change. They have full faith in Manasa Devi, who
protects them from the hardships of natural calamities. Chand Sadagar is a
prosperous trader who owns seven vessels. On the contrary, he is very arrogant
and nonconformist. Manasa Devi appeals to him to worship her so that her
veneration can spread through Bengal and beyond. However, instead of performing
worship, he reprimands her. In anger Manasa Devi showers misfortunes towards
him like storms, famines. Another dreadful incident is that on the wedding
night of Lakhindar, the son of Chand Sadagar is bitten by a king Kobra. Eventually,
the bride Behula regains the life of her husband as she dances in front of the
divine beings. The merchant undertakes an adventurous journey in the sea routes
to escape the wrath of Manasa Devi. He travels widely in the foreign lands.
Unfortunately, the Portuguese pirates capture his ship, and they later sell him
as a slave.He faces extreme crisis in his life. Nakhuda, the captain of a ship
purchased the merchant, and finally released him. They set out to discover the
fortunes and got large amount of cowrie shells. Manasa Devi’s subjects like
snakes, chased him everywhere. Deen unfurls the myth of the Bengali legend how
the merchant travelled and reached to Venice. There he confronted with the
climate crisis. Deen acquires ecological uncanny in the vicinity of the
Sundarbans. He becomes completely frightened when he sees a king kobra
(Ophiophagus hannah) inside the temple. The mystery about the temple leads him
an uncanny experience. He also amazes to view the different symbols, images
including the ‘palm hand’, the ‘two concentric circles’ that are intricately
connected with the Gun Merchant and Manasa Devi. He himself deciphers and
decodes few mysterious symbols. However, Rafi interprets him the difficult
symbols to know the legendary history. He is keenly interested to comprehend
more about the ancient narrative associated with the Gun Merchant. Confronting
numerous uncanny incidents, Deen states, “I was, after all, a stranger,
possibly an intruder” (Ghosh, Gun Island 72).The environmental uncanny
is the base of the climate crisis in the Sundarbans regions. The mountainous
uncanny incident is appeared when a poisonous snake bites Rafi and takes him to
Lusibari hospital for treatment. He becomes unconscious and delirious
condition.
Climate Crisis
and Ecological Uncanny in the Anthropocene
The
Sundarbans mangrove forest gradually succumbs the potentiality of the
ecological resilience. Animals, plants, rives, coastal areas of the Sundarbans
are in a state of fragile and jeopardy. The Anthropogenic activities have
brought massive transition. The various life forms in the entire landscape and
the seascape are deplorable situation. Piya witnesses the fragile condition of
the ecosystem, exemplifies the verge of extinction of their rawaddy river
dolphins. “The Anthropocene alters the relations between earth and world,
between globe and planet” (Vermeulen 65). The Anthropocene strongly affects the
entities of the planet. It interrupts the harmonious relationship between the
humans, and the ecology. The human interposition to the nature generates an
ecological uncanny. Timothy Morton extends the ecological uncanny, saying that
“Thinking the human at Earth magnitude is utterly uncanny: strangely familiar
and familiarly strange” (Morton, Dark Ecology 35).As a matter of fact,
the human beings’ placement to the nature boosts strangeness of the ecology.
Human interference to the Sundarbans probes the pristine of the ecosystem.
Human culture initiates the process of obliteration to the ecology.
Human-induced oil tankers contaminate countless aquatic animals, creatures like
the dolphins as Piya mentions in the course of the novel. Amitav Ghosh points
out “the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the
imagination” (Great Derangement12). The climate crisis develops a
categorical practice produced by the humans. It is the source of the ecological
uncanny. The various in devastated cyclones including the Bhola Cyclone
happened in 1970, and the Aila occurred in 2009 triggered great detrimental
effect on the heart of the Sundarbans. The Bhola cyclone was more dangerous
than the Aila. These brought unprecedented transformation to the Sundarbans
delta.
The
study also traces the unity of humans with more-than-human (beyond the human affairs)to
promote the notion of the environmental uncanny in the novel “Gun Island”.
Dederichs, in the book “Atmosfears,” articulates “Looking at the relationship
between human and more-than- human life in terms of atmospheric entanglements
allows for an embodied and relational approach to ecological existence” (20).Gun
Island provides a description of beyond humans and, naturally, evokes a
sense of eeriness. ‘Bhuta’ (ghost), snakes, scorpions, worms, shamans, and the
supernatural elements are definitely established as more-than-human.“The
Uncanny is ghostly. It is concerned with the strange, weird, and mysterious,
with a flickering sense of something supernatural. The uncanny involves a
feeling of uncertainty in particular regarding the reality of who is and what
is being experienced” (Royle1).The Uncanny is associated with supernatural and
strange atmosphere. It is very interesting and important to note that “Shamans
can communicate with animals. And even with trees, and mountains, and ice and
stuff” (Ghosh, Gun Island 105). All living and non-living beings are
connected in a ‘mesh’ to underscore ecological entanglements, as introduced by
Timothy. ‘Mesh’shapes ecological resilience challenges human-induced climate
change. “Our encounter with other beings becomes profound. They are strange,
even intrinsically strange” (Morton, Ecological Thought 15). Every
organism has a unique identity and strangeness in the ecosystem. The non-human
agency of nature is incorporated in the uncanny, mysterious relationship with
human forces. These ‘improbable’ events shape the literary imagination. To
describe ecological uncanny, Amitav Ghosh observes that, “The uncanny and
improbable events that are beating at our doors seem to have stirred a sense of
recognition, an awareness that humans were never alone” (Uncanny and
Improbable Events 34).The environment Uncanny reveals that anthropogenic
activities have altered the parameters of the Earth.
Dinanath
gains a strange experience of wildfires in Los Angeles. He witnesses how wildfires
destroy all forms of life-animals, birds, plants, and bring the disruption of
the ecology and the ecosystem. The sky is densely ignited with fire and smoke.
The birds, like hawks and eagles, scream and behave abnormally. Darkness is
prevalent in the landscape. The forest is the habitat and habitation of the
multi-species. Ultimately, the entire beautiful landscape is annihilated by the
wildfires. It is transformed into a wasteland. This wasteland creates an
ecological uncanny. The forest fire burned brightly like the movements of the
snakes. It signifies the wrath of nature. The resemblance is shown between
Nature and fire with Manasa Devi and snakes, respectively. Here, wildfire is
metaphorically compared with snakes. Nature and Manasa Devi exhibit wrath
towards the wicked activities of human beings. The fires and snakes are an
indication of anger. Fires and snakes appear in Dinanath’s dreams, and he gets
unhomely and unfamiliar experiences. This pathetic narrative corroborates
ecocide and eco-anxiety. The Los Angeles episode is deeply rooted in global
environmental crises and ecological destruction.
The
intensity of the environmental uncanny heightens when Dinanath moves to Venice
to escape the reality of the climate crisis in the Sundarbans. There he comes
across ecological devastation in the Ghetto of Venice. Venice is struggled with
the environmental crisis. Even Tipu, and Rafi are the victims of the climate
disruption. They migrate to Europe for getting better opportunity. The climate
refugees also travel in a ‘blue boat’ which is the emblematic of climate
migration. “Across the planet everyone’s eyes are on the Blue Boat now: it has
become a symbol of everything that’s going wrong with the world-inequality,
climate change, capitalism, corruption, the arms trade, the oil industry”
(Ghosh, Gun Island 199). There is a clash between the refugees like
Tipu, Rafi, and the indigenous venetians. The aboriginal people protest against
them to leave their country. This narrative explicates unsettling ambience, and
ecological jeopardization in the Anthropocene.
Conclusion
This
study reveals extreme environmental uncanny and unstable climate crisis,
drawing significant global attention of environmental practitioners, and
literary intellectuals to raise ecological consciousness in the Anthropocene. It
involves deeply in the intersection of literature, myth, and environmental
discourse to foster planetary consciousness. The argument of the paper lies in
the fact that the climate crisis causes detrimental effects on the environment,
and the ultimate consequence is prevailing the environmental uncanny, and
strange atmosphere. The study basically provides fruitful insights into ongoing
environmental challenges, and describes how this effectively controls by
employing traditional ecological knowledge. It synthesizes the domains of
nature, environmental uncanny, and mythical narrative. The climate crisis now
becomes a menace to the human and non-human beings. The environmental uncanny
is the end product of the climate crisis caused by anthropogenic activities,
exemplifying in the terrain of the swamp mangrove forest of the Sundarbans. It
leads to strange experience in the Anthropocene.
The
Bengali myth of Manasa Devi is introduced in the novel Gun Island to
explore traditional ecological knowledge to tackle the climate catastrophe.
Myth is the reservoir of traditional ecological wisdom, providing effective
response to the climate continuum. The assemblage of literature, myth, and
nature underscores an interdisciplinary approach, rooted in the wider field of
the environmental humanities. The study calls for a strong interconnection, and
co-existence of the living, and non-living beings, despite continuum climate
change. This paper offers in-depth study of the environmental uncanny, and
climate crisis in the Anthropocene. The study opens the avenues for the
environmental stewardship, and ecological resilience to cope with the
environmental crisis.
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