THE RISE OF ECO-LITERATURE: NATURE AND CLIMATE ANXIETY: A STUDY OF AMITAV GHOSH'S THE HUNGRY TIDE

Abstract

This paper investigates the rise of eco‑literature through a focused study of Amitav Ghosh's novel The Hungry Tide (2004), exploring how the narrative represents nature, environmental degradation, and the emergence of climate anxiety among characters and communities. Situating Ghosh's novel within broader frameworks of ecocriticism and postcolonial environmental thought, the paper conducts a close reading of key scenes and motifs (the tide, the tiger, the estuarine landscape, and human migration) and examines how literary form and narrative perspective articulate ecological knowledge, ethical responsibility, and the temporality of environmental change. The study draws on foundational ecocritical theory (Buell, Glotfelty), scholarship on slow violence and climate injustice (Nixon), and recent work on climate anxiety and the cultural politics of ecological grief (Pihkala, Clayton), while also engaging with Ghosh's own environmental critique (notably The Great Derangement).