Biophilia and Modus Vivendi in Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island: An Ecocritical Study

Abstract

Based on Amitav Ghosh's novel Gun Island (2019), this article endeavors to depict that the advancing limitless pursuit of desires, anthropocentric customs, and the concept of a 'happy life' are the driving forces behind climate change and ecological degradation. It aims to delineate the disastrous consequences of changing climatic conditions, declining plant and animal life, and their escalating influence on humans and the natural environment. This paper discusses ecocritical theories such as ‘biophilia’ and ‘modus vivendi’ that emphasize the intrinsic correlation between humans and nature on the one hand and, on the other, conflicting coexistence of humans and nature respectively. Furthermore, the paper elucidates the impact of these disastrous consequences on marginalized human existence through an analysis of Ghosh's Gun Island. Ultimately, it aims to illustrate the significant role of human intervention in the global environmental catastrophe during the 17th century, by examining the folktale of Bonduki Sadagar that Ghosh divulges in Gun Island.

Spectrum, Volume 18, June 2023: 49-57