Environment and Culture in the Anthropocene, Edited by Shruti Das and published by Authorspress is a collection of essays talking about and critiquing various issues of nature and culture in the Anthropocene. Literary texts, indigenous cultures and green architectures are analysed through these essays to offer some answer some of the questions that Earth has been left grappling with due to human interference. “Imagination, especially literary imagination, needs to wake up and address this issue of ecological damage and disaster that faced earth today. Art and Literature have a definitive place in culture and can help in waking the masses to reality provoking ecological thought through non-fiction, fiction, myth, religious texts, and poetry. Debates and deliberations on this crucial issue will definitely bring about changes in the cultural imagery and mode of production and save the Earth yet," writes Shruti Das in the introduction.
"An intimate organic synergic relationship between nature and literature has been exemplified and endorsed in the works of poets and other writers in all cultures of the world. In almost all facets of knowledge and evolution, this cherished and interdependent relationship between natural and social world is being analysed, accentuated and interpreted...Ecocriticism encompasses a comparatively pioneering literary approach that is accustomed and implemented in the context of the literary natures cape, and it ponders over the hermeneutics of the land captured in literature." writes Dr Josi John Paniker in his essay "Hermeneutics of Myths and Folklores: An Ecocritical Reading of OV Vijayan's 'The Legends of Khasak'.
The book is divided into five sections -
1. Myth, folklore and sustainability
2. Technology, war and the anthropocene
3. Regional literature and the environment
4. Perspectives on the anthropocene.
5. Nature, feminine and almighty
In Myth, folklore and sustainability, Dr Joji John Panicker does an ecocritical redaing of OV Vijayan's 'The legends of Khasak', Ar. Bandan Kumar writes about how Green buildings are a commitment to sustainable lifestyles. SM Mahfuzur Rahman's essay "spotlights the slippery slope built into the unidirectional flow of knowledge from the elites/academicians to the subalterns, and necessitates developing multidimensional perspectives to engender alliances/assemblages amputated of personal interests - to sabotage in subterfuge the socially manufactured parameters of domination, relentlessly dismantle every form of power at every level, and understand how the subalterns self organise to march unstoppably en route to revolution." Next, Shruti Das does a reading in climate change, storytelling and sustainability in the novels Green Grass, Running water by Thomas King and Son of the Thundercloud by Easterine Kire.
In Technology, war and the Anthropocene, Meghna Chatterjee and Sharanya Chakraborty's essay examines the tyranny of man made fires over the forest and the female. Nadeem Aslam's novel The Blind Man's Garden is examined by SK Sagar Ali as a study in the ecology of warfare. Sohini Bera considers the water question as reflected in Subhash Vyam's Water.
In regional literature and environment, Dr Sowmya Srinivasan examines the conflict between economy and ecology in the Tamil novel Rubber by Jeyamohan. Anil Kumar Tiriya examines how the poet Sunil Minj, suggests a way out of the ecocrisis through his poem Song of Netarhaat: Victory Trumpetis Sounding. The poem was composed in the Kurukh language. Next, Bishakha Sarkar studies the development discourse through Hansa Sowvendra Sekhar's story 'The adivasi will not dance.' Dr M Elangovan's essay is an analysis of the eco-crisis in S Kandasamy's Tamil novel Chayavanam. Swatilekha Maity writes about the nature and relationship with marginalised humans in Bengali Literature.
In Perspectives on the Anthropocene, Dr N Lakshmi examines the environmental crisis in The overstory by Richard Powers. Andrew Veda WS takes us on magical journey with an ecological deconstructionist reading of the Harry Potter series. Samita Misra examines the naturescape and contrasting human nature in The Pakistani Bride by Bapsi Sidwa.
In nature, feminine and almighty, Antara Saha studies the famous book 'God of Small Things' as a reading in ecofeminism and sustainability. Dr Bhima Charan Nayak underlines the interrelationship between nature and aesthetics within the timeframes of the past and the present. Daya Dissanyake examines nature worship, its tradition and how it can work for world peace. Dr Sooshilla Gopaul makes a case for an ecological wisdom in her essay. Dr T Eswar Rao examines the essay Nature by RW Emerson. And Dr Silima Nanda ends the collection with a study of post colonial ecofeminism.
A brilliant compilation of essays for today's times. Do pick it up.
