Accentuating Environmental Migration, And Resisting Essentialism In Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island And Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte

Abstract

The Anthropocene is not only characterized by the detrimental effects on the non-human world, but also by the large-scale movement of humans in search of resources to survive as their native places are rapidly becoming uninhabitable. This paper would attempt to trace the literary exploration of the impending crisis of climactic cataclysm, the condition of migrants, and gender politics. Salman Rushdie delineates the trope of environmental

apocalypse, the dynamics of gender relationships, and racial politics in Quichotte. Whereas, Amitav Ghosh enunciates his ecocentric concern and focuses on the issues of forced migration and displacement in Gun Island. There is a striking similarity in the two texts, both thematically and stylistically in terms of the sense of urgency to address the issue of climate change, and the presence of dominant female characters who resist essentialist categories. Rushdie and Ghosh have thus both explored the topical issues represented in the texts with regards to environmental politics/migration, race relations and gender essentialism.