Motherhood and Mother Nature: A Study of Myth and Magic through Amitav Ghosh’s and Wayétu Moore’s Selected Works

Abstract
Contemporary thoughts in the fields of literature and science lead to an interdisciplinary effort to bring along the issues common to both disciplines involved. The post-colonial and post-modern era of literature see literature and society along and literary exponents stamp their responsibilities to take up the serious societal crises and bring the awareness arousing a socio-consciousness in the reading public. This paper tight spots magical realism as one of the experiential tools employed by authors, Amitav Gosh, an Indian writer and winner of the 54th Jnanpith award and Wayétu Moore, a Liberian-American author and entrepreneur, to discuss the contemporary issues such as immigration, climate change, enslavement,etc through the employment of myth and magic. Environmental Humanities is best explained with the advocacy of magic realism. Of all the important supernatural elements, (which is the formula of magic realism) presented in both of the selected novels, Gun Island (2019) and She Would Be King (2018), this paper in detail, deals with only two components that are common in both the texts. They are i) the omnipotent natural force, wind and ii) the most powerful and dangerous species, snake. Both of these components are presented as commanding aid of the two literary texts to progress towards the solution to the catastrophic environmental complications. Both novels employ characters bitten by poisonous snakes, attaining extraordinary powers and also one can witness the power of wind, as omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent natural force. This paper is comparison of collective unconsciousness of two authors and their artful works irrespective of their genders, age and geography.

Keywords: Animal studies, Environmental Humanities, Gun Island, History, Immigration, Magical realism, Non-human, She Would Be King, Snakes, Wind

https://doi.org/10.37948/ensemble-2020-0202-a008