... Ecology and Cultural Memory

Oceanic Texts: Literary Explorations in Blue Humanities 
Edited by P. V. Laxmiprasad
Aadi Publications, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

The sea does not belong to humanity; humanity belongs to the sea. – Steve Mentz

P. V. Laxmiprasad’s edited volume Blue Humanities, published by Aadi Publications, Jaipur, is a timely and intellectually stimulating contribution to contemporary literary and cultural studies. Bringing together diverse critical approaches to oceans, rivers, rain, drought, maritime histories and aquatic consciousness, the volume demonstrates that water is far more than a geographical backdrop in literature. It is a cultural force, a historical archive, an ecological agent and, at times, a powerful metaphor for memory, identity, trauma and human interconnectedness. The volume consequently invites readers to move beyond predominantly land-centred approaches to literature and to “Think with Water.”

The book itself describes Blue Humanities as a field that foregrounds water spaces and their relationships with human cultures, histories, literatures, ethics, politics and ecological thought.

One of the major strengths of the volume is its conceptual breadth. Rather than restricting Blue Humanities to oceans and maritime cultures, the contributors explore rivers, rainfall, drought, mist, floods and even the absence of water. This expansion considerably enriches the field. The chapter on Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain, for example, argues that water can be critically significant even when it is physically absent. The dry landscape of Kasauli becomes a metaphor for emotional deprivation, psychological alienation and ecological imbalance. Such a perspective makes the volume particularly relevant to Indian literary studies, where rivers, monsoons, droughts and water rituals are deeply embedded in cultural consciousness.

The chapter “Hydration and Hallucination: The Psychological Ecology of Drought” develops this argument further by bringing Blue Humanities into dialogue with psychological ecology and Glenn Albrecht’s concept of “Solastalgia.” Its comparative reading of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Desai’s Fire on the Mountain demonstrates how drought can become an active psychological and ecological force rather than merely a setting. The distinction between “Wet Ontologies” and “Dry Ontologies” is especially provocative. It encourages readers to recognize that the absence of water can be as meaningful as its abundance.

Another important contribution is the exploration of Mamang Dai’s The White Stories of Summer. Here, water becomes a repository of cultural memory, ancestral knowledge and indigenous identity. Rivers are interpreted not simply as physical entities but as historical agents that carry stories across generations. This approach is particularly valuable because it brings indigenous ecological consciousness into conversation with contemporary literary theory. The volume thus avoids reducing water to a purely scientific or environmental resource; it understands water as part of a living cultural world.

The discussion of Ruskin Bond’s “The Cherry Tree” demonstrates the remarkable flexibility of the Blue Humanities framework. A story conventionally associated with childhood, nature and growth  is reread through the invisible presence of water. Rainfall, soil moisture and seasonal cycles become essential to the tree’s resilience. The argument that water operates as a “Silent Collaborator” is particularly suggestive. It shifts attention from visible ecological objects to the hidden processes that sustain life.

The volume is equally impressive in its engagement with major postcolonial and maritime narratives. Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy is read as an oceanic archive of migration, indenture, colonialism, labour and cultural exchange. The Indian Ocean emerges as a historical space in which marginalized voices are recovered, and imperial histories are challenged. Similarly, A. K. Ramanujan’s “A River” is examined as a critique of the tendency to romanticize rivers while overlooking flooding, suffering and ecological neglect. According to Hirra Azmat, “A new study has reported that glaciers in the Zanskar region of Ladakh are now moving more sluggishly than they did 30 years ago, offering new clues about how climate change is affecting these giant ‘rivers of ice” (The Hindu, August 13, 2026)

The treatment of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s Chemmeen and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe further establishes the comparative and interdisciplinary scope of the collection. The sea is presented variously as myth, cultural authority, ecological presence, colonial route, barrier, passage and transformative space. The discussion of Chemmeen, in particular, shows how the ocean participates in social regulation, belief systems and existential meaning. As an edited volume, Blue Humanities succeeds because it does not impose a single interpretation of water. Instead, its chapters demonstrate the plurality of aquatic meanings. Water can connect and divide; nurture and destroy; preserve memory and erase it; enable migration and facilitate displacement. Such contradictions are central to the book’s intellectual vitality.

The volume also has contemporary relevance. Climate change, drought, floods, water scarcity, ecological displacement and environmental injustice have made questions surrounding water urgent. The contributors demonstrate that literature can deepen our understanding of these crises by revealing their psychological, cultural and ethical dimensions. The book therefore belongs not only to literary criticism but also to the larger conversation about environmental humanities and the Anthropocene.

A minor limitation is that, like many multi-author collections, the chapters vary somewhat in theoretical sophistication and stylistic execution. Some arguments are more conceptually developed than others. Nevertheless, this variation does not diminish the overall significance of the collection. In fact, the diversity of approaches reflects the fluidity inherent in the very subject the book investigates.

P. V. Laxmiprasad deserves appreciation for bringing these studies together under a single intellectual framework. His editorial project demonstrates that Blue Humanities can become an important new direction in Indian literary criticism. By placing canonical and contemporary texts alongside regional, indigenous, postcolonial and ecological perspectives, the volume creates a productive dialogue between literature and the hydrological imagination. Ultimately, Blue Humanities is more than a collection of essays about water. It is an invitation to rethink the relationship between human beings and the more-than-human world.

Its central insight is both simple and profound: water does not merely exist within literature; it helps shape literature, memory, culture, identity and human existence itself. By encouraging readers to listen to rivers, recognize drought, remember oceans and acknowledge the invisible waters sustaining life, the volume makes a compelling case for a more fluid, ethical and ecologically conscious literary criticism. It is a valuable resource for students, teachers, researchers and scholars of English literature, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, postcolonial studies and cultural studies.