The Human that Therefore I am: Transculturation of an Ecological Debate in Green Humour for a Greying Planet

Abstract

The present research aims at showcasing the transculturation of animals that have adapted human culture in delineating the cause of the environment through Rohan Chakravarty’s Green Humour for a Greying Planet (2021). The book is a compilation of comic strips that have previously appeared on various other platforms over the last decade, ranging from subjects of human-animal relationships to ecological unbalance and the impact of COVID-19 through the voices of animal characters. It primarily deals with threats to the habitat of animals (non-humans) and environmental degradation because of untoward human activities. The Anthropocene, the current geological epoch, is an offshoot of excessive human exercise on planet Earth, resulting in the deterioration of its natural resources and affecting the lives of other species. It has resulted in humans perceiving non-humans as ‘other’ to themselves, thereby diluting the concepts of ‘symbiosis’ and ‘co-being’. This paper attempts to view humans in relation to non-humans toward an agenda of establishing ecological balance. Derrida’s analysis of the ontology of animals in The Animal that therefore I am (2008) focuses on the influence of animals on human lives and vision. Taking this analysis as a parameter, this paper endeavors to decode the animal sentiment as displayed in the comic strips in Chakravarty’s book. This paper uses Franz Kafka’s transcultural ape, Red Peter’s creation of an ape-human culture, as a model to decode the neoculturation of human-animal interaction in Chakravarty’s animals. By referring to the studies of anthropomorphism and anthrozoology, this study attempts to analyze the ecological debate of a world model where humans and animals play interchangeable roles. Subsequently, the paper scrutinizes the ‘language-game’ that the animal characters indulge in to homogenize species differences.