From Sundarbans to Venice: Climate and Cultural Migrations in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most challenging environmental crises worldwide in recent years. There are many reasons for the increase intemperature, but very least, measures are taken to control it. While the scientific reports present the current situation and project the future scenario, the awareness created is not meeting the needs of the hour. It remains intangible. Climate Fiction (cli-fi) emerged as a genre of literature that creates a fictional world set in the future,dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis. The term climate fiction was coined by Dan Bloom, a journalist, in the early 2000s. “Cli-fi” sounds like “sci-fi”, while science fiction focuses on the technological advances and the future, “cli-fi” has its focus on the environment and the issues surrounding it. Climate fiction has for its themes various ecological disasters like global warming, melting of ice caps, rising sea waters,nuclear radiation, etc., everything of which lead to a place uninhabitable to live. By presenting these environmental disasters through heart-wrenching stories, climate fiction paves the way to understand the imaginary futuristic world as a tangible living environment. The environment is no more a backdrop to the setting of the story, it is actively playing its role in the lives of the people.