Retrospective Effect of Global Environmental Crisis: A Semiotic Study on Posthumanism and Hyperobject in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island

Abstract

The impact of the global planetary crisis colossally blurs the hierarchical structures between humans and non-humans. The recent waves of ecocriticism critically defy the anthropocentric stand. Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019) is transnational and set across the different temporal and spatial scales that constitute the retrospective effect of the triple planetary crisis on both human and animals with a blend of history, natural science, folklore and fiction. This study examines the signs, signals, and semiocide in the select novel using Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT). This AT enables interpreting a network of connection between humans and animals, in Gun Island (2019) especially between character Piya and Dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). The analytical framework employed for the study is descriptive content analysis and biosemiotics to study hybrid-text embedded narratives. The notion of hybrid text implies the scientific truth embedded in the fictitious narrative. This study postulates two things: the philosophical strain of Posthumanism and a phenomenon of hybrid text is present in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019).