Interweaving Ecohorror and Symbiotic Associations: The Posthuman Aesthetics of Sundarbans in Selected Works of Amitav Ghosh
Interweaving Ecohorror and Symbiotic Associations The Posthuman Aesthetics of Sundarbans in Selected Works of Amitav Ghosh

Summary/Abstract: Sundarbans portray a world that is non-anthropocentrically hybridised with frequent human-wild engagements as part of daily survival. Amitav Ghosh aptly highlights the (multi-layered) dual character of Sundarbans, surfacing the perilous yet intimate bond between the human and the natural world, evoking ecological horror as well as awareness among the anthropocentric realm. The paper focuses on the islander’s struggle to survive in the complexities of such landscapes in the backdrop of region’s rich socio-cultural history as depicted in his ecological texts – The Hungry Tide, Gun Island and Jungle Nama that simultaneously overlap ecohorror with symbiotic interfaces. Using posthumanist ecohorror as a theoretical framework for study, the paper argues how Ghosh’s illustrations of different environmental catastrophes and conflicts in the frame of region’s cultural belief systems form a posthuman aesthetic that enables to live symbiotically despite oppressive political establishment and precarious circumstances.

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