Disaster’s Face: What Human Bodies Reveal about Catastrophe

Abstract

The global mass media in general depicts disasters as a spectacle for an audience of consumers. As a result, the individuals depicted effectively become generic victims, not fully developed human beings with distinct needs and interests (Drake, Tierney). In Sinha’s novel, however, the chemical plant explosion, though drastically noxious to Khaufpuri citizens, is not restricted to harming only Khaufpuris. In fact, Animal’s narrative conveys visual punctual violence on a Western audience, as well as the Khaufpuris. He reminds his Western audience that there are exposed human bodies in specific geographic locations. This essay investigates the corporeal experience Animal’s audience has with disaster because of his narrative style. I argue that Animal’s People rhetorically constructs a Western audience, and in doing so, reorients the Western audience’s relationship with disaster and disaster victims. Put another way, this essay argues that Sinha’s novel discloses both non-Western and Western human beings amidst catastrophe by deconstructing the fantasy that Westerners are far removed and invincible from disaster.