Title: Toxic Material, Toxic Bodies and Material Ethics: A Study on Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People from the Perspective of Material Ecocriticism

Abstract: Indra Sinha’s novel Animal’s People may be rated as an outstanding text on toxic discourse. Analysis of this novel under the lens of material ecocriticism reveals that during and after Khaufpur chemical disaster, toxic material, possessing agency, constantly traverses, traffics and transits between humans and non-human beings, finally not only constituting the toxic bodies of Khaufpuris represented by Animal, but also constituting the toxic bodies of flora, fauna and other non-human natural beings in Khaufpur. Human beings are just a part of the material community, but if they have no material ethics and ignore the constant material traffic between human and non-human beings, similar ecological disasters may happen again.

Keywords: Indra Sinha, Animal’s People, material ecocriticism, toxic bodies, material ethics

Author: Wenzhong Fu, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.