Wild Fictions
Essays on Literature, Empire, and the Environment
9780226845326
9780226845333
Wild Fictions
Essays on Literature, Empire, and the Environment
A collection of essays on themes central to Ghosh’s work: imperialism and decolonization, climate change, and the stories of ordinary people making lives amid these historical forces.
Wild Fictions brings together Amitav Ghosh’s extraordinary writings on subjects that have obsessed him over the last twenty-five years: literature and language; climate change and the environment; and human lives, travel, and discoveries. Threaded throughout the collection are his reflections on the spaces that we inhabit and how we occupy them. From the significance of the commodification of the clove to the diversity of the mangrove forests in Bengal and the radical fluidity of multilingualism, Wild Fictions is a powerful refutation of imperial violence, a fascinating exploration of the fictions we weave to absorb history, and a reminder of the importance of sensitivity and empathy.
With the combination of moral passion, intellectual curiosity, and literary elegance that defines his writing, Ghosh makes readers understand the world in new and urgent ways. Together, the pieces in Wild Fictions chart a course that allows us to heal our relationships and restore the delicate balance with the volatile landscapes to which we all belong.
Wild Fictions brings together Amitav Ghosh’s extraordinary writings on subjects that have obsessed him over the last twenty-five years: literature and language; climate change and the environment; and human lives, travel, and discoveries. Threaded throughout the collection are his reflections on the spaces that we inhabit and how we occupy them. From the significance of the commodification of the clove to the diversity of the mangrove forests in Bengal and the radical fluidity of multilingualism, Wild Fictions is a powerful refutation of imperial violence, a fascinating exploration of the fictions we weave to absorb history, and a reminder of the importance of sensitivity and empathy.
With the combination of moral passion, intellectual curiosity, and literary elegance that defines his writing, Ghosh makes readers understand the world in new and urgent ways. Together, the pieces in Wild Fictions chart a course that allows us to heal our relationships and restore the delicate balance with the volatile landscapes to which we all belong.
480 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2025
Geography: Environmental Geography
History: Environmental History
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
Table of Contents
Introduction
Climate Change and Environment
One / The Great Uprooting: Migration and Displacement in an Age of Planetary Crisis
Two / Storm of Consequences
Three / Cyclone Nargis
Four / Folly in the Sundarbans?
Five / The Town by the Sea
Six / A Tragic Predicament
Witnesses
Seven / Santanu Das and the First World War
Eight / Abhi Le Baghdad
Nine / At ‘Home and the World’ in Iraq, 1915–17
Ten / Shared Sorrows: Indians and Armenians in the Prison Camps of Ras al-’Ain, 1916–18
Eleven / Of Fanás and Forecastles: The Indian Ocean and Some Lost Languages of the Age of Sail
Twelve / Wordless Pasts: The Indian Exodus from Burma and the Writing of The Glass Palace
Travel and Discovery
Thirteen / Confessions of a Xenophile
Fourteen / The Mountains Are High and the Emperor Is Far Away
Fifteen / The Spice Islands
Narratives
Sixteen / The Well-Travelled Banyan
Seventeen / 11 September 2001
Eighteen / Wild Fictions
Conversations
Nineteen / Provincializing Europe: A Correspondence
Twenty / Imperial Denial
Twenty-one / Storytelling and the Spectrum of the Past
Twenty-two / Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness
Twenty-three / Priya Satia’s Time’s Monster
Presentations
Twenty-four / The Making of In an Antique Land: India, Egypt and the Cairo Geniza
Twenty-five / Computers and Spinning Wheels
Twenty-six / The Way of A.K. Ramanujan
Afterword
Notes
Index
Climate Change and Environment
One / The Great Uprooting: Migration and Displacement in an Age of Planetary Crisis
Two / Storm of Consequences
Three / Cyclone Nargis
Four / Folly in the Sundarbans?
Five / The Town by the Sea
Six / A Tragic Predicament
Witnesses
Seven / Santanu Das and the First World War
Eight / Abhi Le Baghdad
Nine / At ‘Home and the World’ in Iraq, 1915–17
Ten / Shared Sorrows: Indians and Armenians in the Prison Camps of Ras al-’Ain, 1916–18
Eleven / Of Fanás and Forecastles: The Indian Ocean and Some Lost Languages of the Age of Sail
Twelve / Wordless Pasts: The Indian Exodus from Burma and the Writing of The Glass Palace
Travel and Discovery
Thirteen / Confessions of a Xenophile
Fourteen / The Mountains Are High and the Emperor Is Far Away
Fifteen / The Spice Islands
Narratives
Sixteen / The Well-Travelled Banyan
Seventeen / 11 September 2001
Eighteen / Wild Fictions
Conversations
Nineteen / Provincializing Europe: A Correspondence
Twenty / Imperial Denial
Twenty-one / Storytelling and the Spectrum of the Past
Twenty-two / Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness
Twenty-three / Priya Satia’s Time’s Monster
Presentations
Twenty-four / The Making of In an Antique Land: India, Egypt and the Cairo Geniza
Twenty-five / Computers and Spinning Wheels
Twenty-six / The Way of A.K. Ramanujan
Afterword
Notes
Index