Volume VI Special Issue III March 2026

Name of Author : Ms. Noble A. Paliath

Title of the paper : Reframing Global Precarity and Multispecies Migration in Amitav Ghoshs Gun Island (2019)

Abstract: Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island 2019 serves as a quintessential work of climate fiction clifi by dismantling the traditional boundaries between the human story and the planetary crisis. The novel justifies its clifi categorization through three primary lenses ecological instability, cross species migration, and the blurring of myth and science. The narrative follows Deen Datta, a rare book dealer whose journey from the sinking Sundarbans to a heat-ravaged Venice mirrors the path of displaced populations. Ghosh uses extreme weather events wildfires in California, cyclonic surges in Bengal, and unprecedented heatwaves in Europe not as mere backdrops, but as active protagonists that drive the plot. Ghosh redefines the cli fi genre by linking environmental collapse with global migration. The Gun Merchants legend, once a static piece of folklore, is reinterpreted as a historical record of climate driven flight. By connecting the movement of spiders, shipworms, and refugees, Ghosh illustrates that the climate crisis is a totalizing event that erases the distinction between natural history and human history. The novels eerie, uncanny atmosphere reflects the unsettling of the world, where the laws of probability are replaced by the volatility of a warming planet. Ultimately, Gun Island argues that surviving the Anthropocene requires a new form of storytelling one that integrates ancient myths with modern climate data to comprehend a world that has become unrecognizable.

Keywords : Cli fi, Global Precarity, Ecological Instability, Cross-species Migration, Anthropocene, Environmental Collapse

DOI :

Page Number : 175-179