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Abstract

This article is an attempt at analyzing a YouTube video that documents the tsunami when it hit Chennai in 2004. Ecophobia (the fear of/relating to natural elements), an ecocritical theory, forms the basis of the analysis. Originally a psychoanalytical concept, ecophobia is employed to analyze relationships between natural entities and human beings. The hypothesis of the article is that there is a conflict between open and closed spaces which brings about this fear of (or relating to) natural elements. ‘Sea’ is a universal image for ‘separation’ and is appropriated in the article using early Tamil poetry. The theoretical framework of tinai (especially the concepts of akam and puram) that the Sangam poetry offers helps in a better understanding of ecophobia in the article. The transiency and insecurity caused by the sea—the image of separation—is traced in the clip. The idea of home, derived from the concept of tinai, provides contextual meaning to the YouTube clip analyzed. The responses of students to the clip, after a public screening of the clip, are also analyzed ecophobically. The article argues that ecophobia is manifested in two ways—as fear of death caused by the sea and as fear of relationship with the sea.

Keywords

Ecophobia tsunami YouTube clip

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Homing Ecophobia

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