The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Ghosh argues that the concept of freedom is the most important political idea in the modern world and that explorations of freedom are visible in contemporary politics and art. He suggests that independence from nature and the restrictions of the nonhuman are central to modern conceptions of freedom, which focus on human agency. As a result of this interest in human agency, Ghosh argues, modern art has turned away from figurative representations of the world, including nonhumans, to focus instead on abstract depictions of human interiority. Ghosh points to this focus on the human as evidence that artists are complicit in the great derangement that characterizes the modern era.

Ghosh imagines a graph charting the political engagement of artists in the 20th and 21st centuries. He suggests that such a graph would resemble a chart of greenhouse gas emissions: During the first world war, for example, both charts would spike as industrial activities release emissions and artists respond to the war with political works. He argues that the desire to “keep up” with political movements is powerful in artists, especially those from non-European countries trying to engage with global culture. Ghosh is surprised to find so little art about the climate crisis given this desire to engage.