Lesson Plan: ‘The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable’ by Amitav Ghosh

Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.

Step 1: Topic introduction and discussion

Use the article in The Guardian by author Amitav Ghosh, ‘Amitav Ghosh: where is the fiction about climate change?’ to discuss his views on the evolution of the narrative in novels and why it has been resistant to include the topic of climate change. Use the text to explain how climate fiction (Cli-Fi) differs from science fiction (Sci-Fi) in the treatment of the narrative. Explain how fiction derived from climate change deviates from trends of ‘gradualism’ in contemporary narratives and yet does not belong to ‘surrealism’ and ‘magic realism’ due to its nature of being ‘real’. Thus, use the reading to emphasize the difficulty of writing about the nature of climate change and why it does not yet have a large presence in fictional works of the literary world.

This can be accessed here.

Step 2: Introduce the novel using the author’s note

Use the write-up on author Amitav Ghosh’s website as an introduction to his non-fiction book, ‘The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable’. Begin by discussing the title of the book- what is the ‘great derangement’ and why is climate change ‘unthinkable’ according to Ghosh. Use the brief text to introduce the different sections of this non-fiction book- literature, history and politics.

This can be accessed here.

Finally, ask your students to read the non-fiction book, ‘The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable’ as a home assignment. Note that the book will have to be procured for this assignment. Instruct them to makes notes of the key points and arguments presented whilst reading the book.

Step 3:  Summarize the key-points and arguments presented in the book

Play the video, “A Conversation on Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Great Derangement’” by Dr Maya Dodd (Literary and Cultural Studies) with Paloma Chandrachud (Environmental Studies), FLAME University, India, that highlights the key points presented by the author Amitav Ghosh in the book.

This can be accessed here.

Use the following points raised in the conversation to facilitate classroom discussions for better understanding of the reviewed material:

• Why, according to Ghosh, is climate change unimaginable or unthinkable?
• Why can we not narrate the story of our times (in the context of climate change)?
• Why is the current cli-fi primarily speculative and not in the mode of realism?
• Explain why Ghosh believes that the missing narrative of climate change requires the unmasking of ‘unbelievable choices’ we have made in the past. Use the case of a high-risk area Bombay/Mumbai as an example.
• Describe some ‘unbelievable choices’ made by us that have become the new normal.
• Discuss how the rift in narrative between the human and the non-human has come about. Explain how this differs from older narratives especially in the context of Asian/Indian literature.
• Explain how Eastern philosophy of the ‘sacred’ or the ‘divine’ bridges the gap between humans and non-humans.
• Historically, discuss how the association of nature and culture has evolved.
• Explain how Western individualism as opposed to non-Western collective values affects climate action.
• Discuss the role of denialists and activists in influencing climate consciousness.
• Explain why a more philosophical approach with the contextualization of history is needed to deal with global climate change where a technical fix like adhering to the Paris Agreement is not enough.
• Debate the argument that Asia’s ‘delayed start’ abrogates its responsibility of reducing carbon emissions or sharing the burden of climate mitigation.
• Discuss how ‘The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable’ by Amitav Ghosh can be considered as the fourth book to the Ibis trilogy by the same author.

Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation :

1. Discuss why climate change has not caught the collective imagination of writers?

2. Explain what Amitav Ghosh refers to as ‘The Great Derangement’ in the book.

3. ‘The Anthropocene presents a challenge not only to the arts and humanities, but also to our commonsense understandings and beyond that to contemporary culture in general’- How does Amitav Ghosh justify this statement in the book?

4. What might a sustainable world look like? Respond to this question with reference to Ghosh’s ‘The Great Derangement’?

The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:

1. gain familiarity with environmental concerns specific to India due to climate change
2. engage with writing produced on the interaction between humans and nature in India
3. create sensitivity to ecocriticism and the impact of climate change on literary thinking

If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.

1. Videos ‘The Great Derangement: Fiction, History, and Politics in the Age of Global Warming’

A set of four lectures delivered by Amitav Ghosh for the Randy L. & Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures in Fall 2015 at University of Chicago. This can be accessed at:

https://berlinfamilylectures.uchicago.edu/past-lecturers/amitav-ghosh/

2. Reading ‘The Climate of History: Four Theses’

An essay by historian Dipesh Chakrabarty that discusses why the discipline of history does not adequately address the environmental history of the planet.

This can be accessed at:

http://www.law.uvic.ca/demcon/2013%20readings/Chakrabarty%20-%20Climate%20of%20History.pdf

Note: A separate lesson plan by Dr Maya Dodd, FLAME University, India, that discusses this essay comprehensively can be accessed at:

https://tropicsu.org/lesson-plan-climate-change-and-the-environmental-humanities/

3.   Video ‘Al Gore on ‘An Inconvenient Sequel’. Climate change ‘ends with a victory to humanity’’

A video interview by CBC/Radio-Canada with Al Gore about the documentary ‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’. This documentary is derived from Al Gore’s book by the same name and chronicles the last decade on what has happened around the world as nations decide on whose burden it is to reduce carbon emissions and how these contributions can be apportioned.

This can be accessed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx2l2du7Tdg

1.       Reading ‘Amitav Ghosh: where is the fiction about climate change?’

An article in The Guardian by author Amitav Ghosh

2.       Reading ‘The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable’

An introduction to his non-fiction book by author Amitav Ghosh

3.       Video ‘A Conversation on Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Great Derangement’’

Dr Maya Dodd with Paloma Chandrachud, FLAME University, India. Produced for TROP ICSU by Science Media Centre, IISER Pune.

4.       Additional Resources

• Lectures by Amitav Ghosh for the Randy L. & Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures, University of Chicago
• An essay by historian Dipesh Chakrabarty. Provided by Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Canada
• Dr Maya Dodd, FLAME University for TROP ICSU Project
• An interview with Al Gore by CBC/Radio-Canada

5. Image(s)

Union Theological Seminary