Deen Dayal Upadhyaya

College, DU.

The Great
Derangement
Prashmita Singh (22ENG0623)
Soumi Bandopadhyay (22ENG0635)
Shambhavi Singh (22ENG0630)
Sumaiya Arshad (22ENG0636)
Radhika Tandon (22ENG0627)
 Introduction

In the Great Derangement: Climate Change and the

Unthinkable, published in 2018, acclaimed novelist Amitav
Ghosh offers a new non-fiction work that aims to confront
the urgent issue of climate change by reflecting on our
“deranged” modes of political and socio-economic
organisation via three themes: literature in the form of
stories, history and politics.
it examines the limits of human thought when it comes to
the spectre of environmental catastrophe
Ghosh critiques the limitations of the ‘literary novel’,
Ghosh says that the novels in the contemporary times
rarely allows the climate to be included upon the habitual
routines and ordinary concerns of life.
He therefore calls for a heightened imaginary response to
climate change.
 Contents

01 /
"Ecological Refugee"
and Literature gap 03/
regarding Climate Impacts of pollution
and Colonial history 05 /
Change 02 /
on Natural Disasters 04/ Anthropocene resists
Literary Implications
of Climate Crisis
Dangers to literary fiction
settlements near
water bodies.
 01/
"Ecological Refugee" and
Literature gap regarding
Climate Change.

Amitav Ghosh says, “I would not be able to speak

of the encounters as instances of recognition if
some prior awareness of what I was witnessing
had not already been implanted in me.”
Literature has a gap regarding climate change, and
Ghosh acknowledges it.
This era which so congratulates itself on its self-
awareness, yet fails to live the talked, will come to
be known as the time of the Great Derangement.
 02/
Literary Implications
of Climate Crisis

Ghosh argues that modern fiction and literary criticism tend to ignore the threat
of climate change, relegating texts that do address the topic to subgenres like
fantasy or science fiction.
He suggests that art produces cultural currents that create desires that have a
concrete impact on climate change. As a result of this tangible impact, Ghosh
argues that for artists to ignore climate change is a symptom of a “great
derangement”.
He traces the evolution of the novel form in the 19th century as a response to
traditional storytelling modes, which consisted primarily of depictions of
dramatic events connected by transitional tags or phrases.
Novels, on the other hand, relied on realistic details to move readers gradually
through a story. Ghosh shows that this evolution of form mirrors 19th-century
arguments about the pace of geological change.
 02/
Literary
Implications of
Climate Crisis
Ghosh points out that we live in a world defined by improbably dangerous
events like once-in-a-century storms, droughts, and heatwaves. He points
to the tendency to build homes near water as evidence of the modern
reliance on predictability and probability in assessing threat.
Ghosh speculates about the possibility of a Category 4 or 5 storm hitting
Mumbai and the destruction such an event might cause. The folly of
building dense human settlements in ecologically precarious locations is
not just a matter of hindsight; in many instances, developers are warned
against specific sites and choose to build anyway.
He explains how the environment and ecosystem of the Sundarban area is
changing over time… the animals and human life are getting into more
conflict with each other. Even the tiger population has been decreasing at
an alarming rate.
03/
Impacts of pollution and
Colonial history on Natural
Disasters

Amitav Ghosh focuses on a Tsunami in Indian Ocean that

had badly hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Coconut trees remained safe while construction near
coastal area was badly damaged.
He attributes this pattern of settlement near coastline to
the colonizers and contradicts it to the settlements in
human history which were built far away from the waters.
He talks about the colonial mindset of finding close
proximity to deepwarer harbour as safe and strategic.
He also highlights the vulnerability of Mumbai to natural
disasters due to its makeshift way of connection to the
mainland.
He attributes the blame of increasing regularity of these
disasters to clouds of dust and pollution in the Indian
mainland and surrounding waters.
03/
Impacts of pollution and
Colonial history on Natural
Disasters
Ghosh also mentions several other instances of
cyclones which have occurred recently in 1749, 1783,
1854, 2009 etc.
Later chapters mainly focuses on the consequences
of floods of 2005 & 2015 in Mumbai which led to
several problems, extensive damange and loss of
lives. The main victims being the poor people of the
slums.
He adds to his research by listing the changes that
have been brought since then, which includes
planning for disaster management , repairing of the
drainage system, investing on accurate weather
forecasting etc.
The chapter ends with prophecies and future
possibilities of natural disasters such as floods,
Tornadoes, earthquakes etc. and how they will affect
the people and the city.
04/
Dangers to settlements near
water bodies

1. Mumbai and Cyclones; social and

ecological commentary.

2. Colonial apathy towards the settlements

in Bengal.

3. Consequences of defying our ancestors'

lessons.
05/
Anthropocene resists
literary fiction.
Partitioning is the deepening of the gulf between nature and the
culture/sciences.
It was resisted through romanticism, transcendentalism,
pastoralism and so on.
The relationship between literature and science was close at the
birth of modernity. One such example is Paul et Virginie by Saint-
Pierre.
Later on, science fiction became a genre separate from other
literary genres.
Climate fiction has emerged as a part of science fiction and usually
centres around disaster stories set in the future.
The Anthropocene is the time period when humans made a
substantial impact on the Earth.
Anthropocene resists science fiction; however, this should not be
so.
Global warming’s separation from fiction began with fossil fuels like
coal and oil, whose sooty and smelly nature repels all senses.
Coal was seen as a form of resistance as miners were usually the
ones who protested against unfair political policies.
Coal was switched to oil because of its aesthetics and purposes
even though the substance was not manifested visually.
05/
Anthropocene resists
literary fiction.
Consequences of oil are not in our imaginative lives or in arts, music,
dance, etc.
Individual character is secondary to collective metamorphosis.
Acceleration in carbon emissions and then turning away from the
collective.
Global warming has seemingly been toying with humanity, like global
temperatures "stabilizing" after wars.
Mrauk-U is where the human and the non-human resonate with each
other.
Eduardo Kohn says that "forms" which are much more than shapes or
metaphors are one of the means that enable our surroundings to
think through us.
Visual arts are found more easy to address climate cAnthropocene
resists literary fiction.hange than literary fiction.
Anthropocene resists literary fiction. However, new, hybrid forms will
emerge and the act of reading itself wi inll change itself.
06/
Conclusion

From this text, it can be observed that there is a lack of

addressal of climate change in literature. Climate change is
usually relegated to fantasy or science fiction. Anthropocene
has been resisting language and literature. However, that
situation will improve in the coming future.
 Thanks

B.A English (Honours)