Analysing the Ecological Concerns through the Lens of Critical Animal Studies in Selected Stories from the Kakababu Series by Sunil Gangopadhyay

Abstract

This paper will attempt to locate and analyse the environmental concerns and the treatment of animals through the lens of Critical Animal Studies in selected stories from the Kakababu series written by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Though predominantly these stories belong to the adventure and detective genre, they also critically engage with the environmental issues and issues within the realm of Critical Animal Studies with a comfortable ease. From raising issues regarding the animal poachers in Kenya in Jangaler Modhye Ek Hotel, to exploring the suicide mystery of the birds in Assam in Ulka Rahasya, to the neglect and abandonment of the old worn-out horses in Bhoyonkor Sundar, the Kakababu stories are resolutely concerned with the anthropocentric attitude of humans towards nature and other non-human animals.

Through the voice of the protagonist, Sunil Gangopadhyay is almost didactic in his promulgation of the issues concerning ecology and treatment of animals in this series. The paper seeks a careful appraisal of the ethics and aesthetics of the literary representation of animal suffering and our attitude towards the treatment of animals and their representation. Through a qualitative textual analysis this paper aims to discuss the narrative approach of Gangopadhyay which resonates with the paradigm shift or the “animal turn” in the field of eco-critical study disrupting anthropocentrism.