The subject of climate change gets invariably associated with scientists, economists and engineers. But, there are more questions regarding climate change which fall within the realm of humanities. People’s hopes and fears in this regard are better captured in literature, says Sarah Dimick, an academician from Harvard University.
Emphasising the importance of the role of literature in the larger area of environmental studies, Dr. Dimick, who is in Chennai as part of her book project on climate and literature, says there are creative works that throw light on how people navigate during moments of climatic stress. She also refers to the emergence of a new branch of work which is called “climate fiction” or “cli fi”.
The academician, who is an assistant professor of English and affiliated with the Harvard University Centre for the Environment, has covered five Indian works - two novels of Amitav Ghosh, ‘The Great Derangement’ and ‘Gun Island’, ; Prayaag Akbar’s ‘Leila’ and Ashokamitran’s ‘Water’ (originally written in Tamil - Thanneer), apart from Abhay K.’s work of poetry, ‘Monsoon’ as part of her study.
