Trouble marks the current epoch, the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene, a term popularised by atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen and biologist E.F Stoermer, refers to the epoch defined by human activities. This study uses ‘toxicity’ which has become a characteristic of the Anthropocene to explore the idea of ‘trouble’ or crisis in the Anthropocene. It examines the representation of three different toxic disasters—Bhopal, Chernobyl, Hiroshima—in fiction, presenting a crisis of the everyday due to the impact of the disaster. This study contends that narratives of toxic disasters help understand the epoch of the Anthropocene by revealing new significations and highlighting emerging sensibilities of human and non-human connections. Utilising the analytic practices and methodology provided by ecocriticism—which deals with literary and cultural representations of the environment—the study tries to explore the material manifestations of non-human agency and the question of human agency in the Anthropocene. It argues that these narratives provide a map to understand the way in which individuals and communities at large respond to and live with the disaster. It would in turn help us develop and explore our sensibilities for the troubled times of the Anthropocene.

The study proposes two terms to study the idea of narrating toxicity and environmental imagination—toxikos and toxicscape. Toxicscape, a portmanteau for toxic landscapes, refers to those landscapes which are sites of toxic disaster. These physical markers reveal a toxic past, a continuing, toxic present and a future defined by toxicity. Bhopal, Hiroshima and Chernobyl are all toxicscapes, among the many toxicscapes across the world. This research seeks to identify the various strategies and techniques used to create the sense of toxic doom through a new term called the ‘Toxikos.’ Toxikos, like toxicscapes, is a portmanteau word for toxic oikos and refers to a new signification made real by a toxic disaster. Thus, the idea of ‘making sense of trouble,’ as the title of the thesis goes, via narratives involves close reading of the text to understand how the characters make sense of the unprecedented crisis. The toxikos, (oikos means home in ancient Greek), the toxic home, involves an active engagement with the body and the environment where the body becomes an extension of the environment and vice versa. A study of the toxikos also reveals the ways in which the narrative becomes a sense making tool, for both the reader and the characters.

Keywords: Anthropocene, Narrative, Environment, Body, Toxicity, Toxicscape, Toxikos, Bhopal, Chernobyl, Hiroshima.