Pramod K. Nayar. “The Postcolonial Uncanny: The Politics of Dispossession in Amitav Ghosh’s the Hungry Tide.” College Literature, vol. 37, no. 4, 2010, pp. 88–119, https://doi.org/10.1353/lit.2010.0011. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

This article examines the boundaries of the homely and unhomely in the context of the postcolonial within Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. He uses some psychoanalytic and poststructuralist theory to argue that ways of knowing within the novel precede mere knowledge. The use in my project will be in terms of further exploring of his idea of “the indigenous canny”, and how it formulates a less problematic way of knowing.

Ratté , Lou . “Unlikely Encounters:Fiction and Scientific Discourse in the Novels of Amitav Ghosh.” History, Narrative, and Testimony in Amitav Ghosh’s Fiction, edited by Chitra Sankaran, State University of New York Press, 2012, pp. 17–32, www.jstor.org/stable/jj.18254311. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.

Lou Ratte seeks to do something similar within his text that I will attempt in mine, namely examining the way certain scientific discourse in The Hungry Tide. He hits on three main points:the ways indigenous knowledge is are stolen to bolster Western science,the ways science affects local populations, and the undermining of native science models. Ultimately, although this text is historicizing, I mean to use it primarily to examine the way scientific discourses in postcoloniality.

White, Laura A. “Novel Vision: Seeing the Sunderbans through Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Hungry Tide.’” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 20, no. 3, 2013, pp. 513–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44087261 . Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.

White’s article contends that the ways of knowing ,in a postcolonial context, are not about cold reason or dry empiricism but come phenomenologically. She is in conversation with another theorist we will also encounter in my essay, Walter Mignolo. She uses his concept of visual practices being another type of epistemology, rather than a perhaps a traditional philosophical dichotomy of “seeing vs knowing” . This will be one of my main pieces to think with as it gets to the heart of what I seek to argue; namely that are ways of knowing outside of Western models of postcoloniality. 

Alcoff, Linda Martín . “Mignolo’s Epistemology of Coloniality.” CR: The New Centennial Review, vol. 7, no. 3, 2008, pp. 79–101, https://doi.org/10.1353/ncr.0.0008 .

Hunter College’s  very own Linda Alcoff details here a comprehensive overview of Walter Mignolo’s decolonial epistemology alongside explorations of Foucault. She relates power systems and the way knowledge gets imposed through discourse, specifically under postcolonialism. This will be the main theoretical piece I will work with. Alcoff is a philosopher and Mignolo is a semiotician/philosopher so the interdisciplinary nature of this  piece fits perfectly for the research project, which explores philosophy and literature, as means to discuss epistemology. 

‌Wilburn, Heather. “An Introduction to Western Epistemology.” Open.library.okstate.edu, Tulsa Community College, 18 Jan. 2021, open.library.okstate.edu/introphilosophy/chapter/an-introduction-to-western-epistemology/.

My project is written with other literary critics in mind of course and most critics have at least a vague notion of certain classic epistemological concepts in Western philosophy. Nonetheless, Heather Wilburn’s introductory article, gives a concise and brief summary of major figures with epistemology. From Descartes to Hume, she covers the foundation by which Modern Western epistemology and philosophy was founded on. 

Rohlf, Michael, “Immanuel Kant”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2024 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/kant/> 

I likewise wanted to provide a brief overview on Kant, as he is one of the biggest, if not the biggest Western philosopher ever. The article by Wilburn does not provide an adequate overview on Kant’s philosophy, so for the purposes on my research I will instead use this one.

Ghosh, Amitav. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Ghosh’s section , Fictions,  is where he gets most in depth about the problems of narrative and epistemology. Specifically he hones in on how knowing, seeing, and imaging are not necessarily different categories, but are essential to understanding  the impending climate crisis we face. He like White historicizes, but specifically discusses the geological history of Bangladesh, and critiques how we understand mass  ‘disasters’. Knowing and narrative are key themes in both The Great Derangement and The Hungry Tide, so it is in my article that I want to keep these two works as companion pieces that play off each other.

‌

How does the change in point of view throughout the novel, The Hungry Tide, utilize the gender roles of the narrators to showcase varying perspectives of the world, community, and environment?

Mezaal Al-Janabi, Haider Mohammad. The Implications of Ecology and Ecofeminism in Amitav Ghosh’s the Hungry Tide. www.joss-iq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The_Implications_of_Ecology_and_Ecofeminism_in_Amitav_Ghoshs.pdf. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

This article goes into depth about the concept of ecofeminism and how it is an important tool and critical theory in research. It also connnects the ideas of ecofeminism to the broader scope of eco criticism in exploring the use of nature to connect humans through cultural beliefs. This article serves as context in understanding the roots of ecofeminism and how it relates to the character of Piya and her relationship to preservation of nature.

Mrityunjoy Mondal. “Role of Women in Amitav Ghosh’s the Hungry Tide.” The Creative Launcher, vol. 6, no. 5, 30 Dec. 2021, pp. 63–71, https://doi.org/10.53032/tcl.2021.6.5.08. Accessed 30 Mar. 2022.

Mondal explores Ghosh’s postcolonial and pro-feminist approach to characterizing women in The Hungry Tide. The characterization of the women characters to be self-dependent, ambitious, and determined to reach their respective goals through adversity combats the patriarchal perceptions of women that are often represented. Mondal exemplifies that the way in which Piya moves throughout the world and interacts with men provides a framework for understanding the narrators of the novel.

OZER, SILA. “Ecofeminism and Power Dynamics in the Anthropocene: Amitav Ghosh’s “the Hungry Tide.”” Unipd.it, 21 Oct. 2024, thesis.unipd.it/handle/20.500.12608/73917, https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12608/73917. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

This work focuses on the different power dynamics of men and women in the Sundarbans and how it is connected to the dynamics of the ecosystem as a whole with human agency taking domininance. Understanding how ecological issues and gender roles are connected allows us to better understand the roles the narrators take on in the Sundarbans. Additionally, how the narrators, Piya and Kanai reject  and transcend these roles as the novel continues on.

S Lekha Subasini, et al. “Unraveling the Tapestry of Diverse Indian Realities: A Study of Amitav Ghosh’s the Hungry Tide.” International Journal of Applied Research, vol. 10, no. 4, 14 May 2024, pp. 104–108, www.researchgate.net/profile/Vanitha-Arumugham-4/publication/380568821_Unraveling_the_tapestry_of_diverse_Indian_realities_A_Study_of_Amitav_Ghosh, https://doi.org/10.22271/allresearch.2024.v10.i5b.11734.

Subasini provides important insight into how gender dynamics are affected by colonization of India along with how this novel represents the different realities of the environmental crisis for different groups of people. This study highlights the important differing personal the narrators of the novel have on colonization of land and their roots in India.

1. Abarrio, Ruben Peinado “FRAGMENTED AND BEWILDERING: THE NEW RISK SOCIETY IN JENNY OFFILL’S WEATHER.”, Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, vol. 26 pp. 1 – 23. http://dx.doi.org/10.12795/REN.2022.i26.11. Accessed November 28th, 2022.

Abarrio’s article argues that Offill creates a call to action through the fragmentation. “Weather” creates a critique against ‘posthumanism’ society. This idea can be connected towards both Fisher and Jarr’s articles where people’s actions are at the forefront of the criticism. Abarrio does something unique and mentions Offill dropping in the ‘obligatory of hope’ website as an advertisement to call people to participate in these ‘grassroot community projects’ and ‘global environmentalist movements’ in Abarrio’s words and I can use this as an excuse to extend my research onto the external source provided in the novel.

2. Fisher, Clare “The Centrality of the Trivial.”, University of Leeds. Published July 13th, 2020.

Fisher’s article focuses on the non-hierarchical aesthetic of the novel, allowing for all issues to be on ground level. The use of this article would be to also point out the similar non-hierarchical aesthetic that is the novel and connect it to the trivial nature of detailing and representation of Lizzie as a character where we don’t have much said about her, but we learn more about the characters around her, and her fear of disaster effects the people around her. This article can be connected to Jarr’s with the critique of environmental politics through Lizzie’s character.

3. Jarr, Sana’ Mahmoud “The Peril of Climate Change in Jenny Offill’s Weather.”, Journal of World Englishes and Educational Practices, vol. 6 (2), pp. 45 – 50. Journal of World Englishes and Educational Practices, https://doi.org/10.32996/jweep.2024.6.2.5. Published June 1st, 2024.

For Jarr’s article, I will be touching on Pages 47 & 48 where she breaks down aspects of literature and the environment within Weather. Speaking through an ecocritical lens where she mentions things such as Capitalism and Eco-Anxiety which can be easily tied back to the critical essays, we’ve read in class in regard to Offill and how she goes about critiquing environmental politics. The entire article (Pages 45 – 50) centers around Weather’s main “focus” of alerting readers to the risks of climate change from a social standpoint.

4. Kruger, Katherine “Aging through Precarious Time”, Poetics Today, vol. 44 (1-2), pp. 89 – 110. https://doi-org.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/10.1215/03335372-10342099.

Kruger’s article uses “Weather” to focus on the narrative of aging and precarious work. Kruger dedicates half of her article to “Weather” to how the act of “milling” creates a stagnancy in routine for the middle aged through Lizzie. The precarity of the future and Lizzie’s lifestyle where she spends majority of the article exposed to these new ideas of the Anthropocene, Kruger believes that one who conforms to this stagnant lifestyle is incapable of making an action towards working against the true danger because they’re too distracted by precariousness and not focused on the present disaster that they’re living in.

Remember that we’re not meeting together on Th 12/5 or Mon 12/9. Instead, you will each attend a brief conference. Sign up here if you haven’t:

Pairs Conferences Sign-up

Conferences will last 10 minutes, so please be on time! Here are some tips on how to have a successful conference…

And here’s a tipsheet to help you prepare:

Pairs Conferences Tipsheet copy

Engl 252: Professor Allred Next week, we’ll meet in the usual classroom for ten minutes apiece in pairs: two of you and one of me.

Please be on time! You’re only expected to be in class 10-15 minutes for the next two sessions, so leave time for MTA disasters and the like.

Gramsci, Antonio. “The Formation of the Intellectuals” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism , W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. , New York, NY, 2018, pp. 929–935. 

Gramsci introduces a theory about knowledge, and its connection with hegemony. He categorizes branches of “organic” intellectuals as people who maintain hegemony and speak to certain groups with a certain affinity, and “traditional” intellectuals who represent a mystical, transcendent type of knowledge. Though the boundary between the two seems clear, given the shifting landscape of The Hungry Tide,the importance of the role characters like Fokir might play in The Hungry Tide as opposed to someone like Piya or Kanai might change based on location and purpose. Gramsci’s guidelines of what constitutes hegemony and who is in power of forming one contradict the “lowly” status of Fokir, and may serve as a message about ethical post colonial reformation when applied to The Hungry Tide. 

Jaising, Shakti. “Fixity amid flux: Aesthetics and environmentalism in Amitav Ghosh’s The hungry tide.” Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, vol. 46, no. 4, Oct. 2015, pp. 63–88, https://doi.org/10.1353/ari.2015.0028. 

Shakti makes the claim that Ghosh reframes political activism in The Hungry Tide where Fokir functions as a mechanism for creating some third space of “post colonial identity” to help Kanai and Piya reconnect between concepts of canny/uncanny Sundarbans. Seeing Fokir as serving this purpose puts him in a discussion of glorification of peasant culture, inviting readers as well as other characters to feel sympathetic to the struggles of the indigenous–loss of land, identity, and poverty. I will argue that this is the kind of attention that takes away from the agency of Fokir as a more important character, providing a better means to promote post colonial activism, that comes from a place of wanting to understand, and not from a privileged place of feeling sorry for them.

Murphy, Patrick D. “Community resilience and the cosmopolitan role in the environmental challenge-response novels of Ghosh, Grace, and Sinha.” Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 50, no. 1, 1 Feb. 2013, pp. 148–168, https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.50.1.0148. 

Murphy discusses what constitutes as successful “change” and who can be an organizer of such change. For him, it is minority communities as illustrated by Ghosh in the Marichjhapi refugees. Indigenous groups have the level of creativity and understanding of their world that best equips them with knowledge to adapt to the challenges they face. Adaptation and the way we adapt is more useful than the conservation of a social order, as that may become outdated and too rigid to serve as a place of hope anymore. In terms of The Hungry Tide, it will be interesting to examine the levels of adaptation, and how certain characters fall in and out of the habit of maintaining that social order they are used to, and the efficacy of these habits. 

Pirzadeh, Saba. “Persecution vs. protection: Examining the pernicious politics of environmental conservation in The Hungry Tide.” South Asian Review, vol. 36, no. 2, Nov. 2015, pp. 107–120, https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2015.11933020. 

This essay makes the claim that The Hungry Tide aims to address the issues that arise when foreign knowledge, in this case Western alienated intelligence, attempts to represent a culture like that of the Sundarban islands. One issue might be a “de-essentialized representation”, one where, what matters to the Westerner misses the importance of the same concept to the indigenous. It raises the question of what an objective truth even is. The Sundarban islands serve to emphasize constant change and mystique, which Pirzadeh argues is an intentional move by Ghosh to push against the Western idea that foreign places are, to our standards, “easily knowable”.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Can the Subaltern Speak.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism , W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. , New York, NY, 2018, pp. 2001–2012. 

Spivak discusses the ethical concerns in representing a group of people she calls, “subalterns”. Subalterns are not just marginalized individuals, but also an unrepresentable class who might be personally autonomous but politically and culturally are unable to be understood as such. Subalterns are a step further from a disadvantaged class, and as such she argues they “cannot speak” due to their constant misrepresentation. In my paper, this may represent Fokir, and the shortcomings of postcolonial subaltern studies to represent such a person would relate to the ways Piya attempts to “honor” Fokir by modifying all he stands for into a piece of GPS data.

Thieme, John. “‘Out of Place’? the Poetics of Space in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and Michael Ondaatje’s.” Commonwealth Essays and Studies, vol. 31, no. 2, 1 Apr. 2009, pp. 32–43, https://doi.org/10.4000/ces.8870. 

Thieme compares and contrasts two novels, The Hungry Tide and Anil’s Ghost, to emphasize the importance of space in the novels. I will focus only on the section about The Hungry Tide, which he uses to further argue that “places are the product of social relations” and the idea represented in Ghosh’s novel is that these social relations are always dynamic. The shifting nature of power or knowledge in the novel, is essential to understand the landscape of the Sundarbans, though I feel this argument is a little “chicken vs. egg” in nature. Ultimately, the argument is that places constitute their identity based on the ways different eyes see them, and this is relevant to The Hungry Tide as we examine what is important to which character, why, and how this relates to an ethical understanding and representation of an indigenous culture, while still being able to coherently express these ideas to the “outside”. 

Vincent, Suhasini. “An eco-critical analysis of climate change and the unthinkable in Amitav Ghosh’s fiction and non-fiction.” Humanities, vol. 7, no. 2, 7 June 2018, p. 59, https://doi.org/10.3390/h7020059. 

Suhasini succinctly examines the challenges that writers face when trying to account for the ecosystem of today. This essay serves as a “big-picture” piece, connecting literary theory and specific ideas about characters in the novel to ideas about the Anthropocene. He cites Ghosh’s The Great Derangement, The Hungry Tide, and The Ibis Trilogy to show how Ghosh wants to show how addressing ecological concerns cannot be done without examining the cultural attitudes that are necessarily involved in ecosystems. Nature and people are not remote from each other, and we cannot address things like climate change from a place where we feel we can cleanly draw lines between policy, culture, and nature.