Gun Island: An Experiment with Fictional Time

Abstract

This paper examines the treatment of time in the novel Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh, and scrutinises how its particular temporal perspective explores the connection between humans and nature. Ghosh deploys his own techniques to make readers conscious about the temporal scope of his story, and these techniques can be analysed through the distinctive ways of time measurement, theories of ‘deep time’ or ecological time, the idea of the ‘Anthropocene’, various modes of temporal distortion, and the concepts of public and private memory. Understanding the timeframe of any literary work is crucial to grasp its essence, and it is only within a temporal structure that it can be located. In Gun Island, the author challenges readers by using unique measurement of time, fragmentation of traditional clock time, and juxtaposition of collective with individual memory. I argue in my paper that through these challenges, which definitely make the reading a complicated one, the author is able to offer a new perception of time to the readers. The unique approach of temporality that Ghosh adopts points out how the general human perception of time hinders our capacity to perceive the crucial signs of climate change in the present world. At the same time, this new temporal perspective helps readers to be aware of environmental changes and its consequences.