Ecocritical Perspective on Anita Desai’s ‘The Artist of Disappearance’

Abstract

The title novella of Anita Desai’s latest book, ‘The Artist of Disappearance’, a trilogy of connected novellas about the art world published in 2011, highlights a very major topic, namely the environmental disaster, which we are all aware with, and challenges us to look at it differently. The current paper seeks to define the word ecocriticism; and then examine this novella set in Mussorie, a Himalayan foothills resort, via the perspective of ecocriticism. The present research entitled, “Crisis of Local Identity under the Invasion of Global Forces in Anita Desai’s “The Artist of Disappearance” aims at excavating how the global and local forces come to direct confrontation and the relevance of minority art, culture, social norms and values are questioned in the present globalized world with the emergence of profound global forces and their rapid expansion throughout the world. The global forces that play crucial role to cause the dramatic changes are camera, English language and multinational companies, to name few among others. The writer, in the novel, brings forth such characters who have been victimized by the same forces in one way or another.