COMPREHENDING THE COLOSSUS: CRAIG RUSSELL’S FRAGMENTAS AN ECO-THRILLER

Abstract

Creative writers who are environmentally-oriented adopt different modes of narration in order to drive home their ecological concerns. Eco-thriller is a sub-genre of eco-fiction which blends the components of environmental writing and thrillers. This paper aims at reading Craig Russell’s Fragment as an eco-thriller. In order to achieve this objective, the characteristic features that define eco-thrillers are enlisted in tandem with the corresponding events in the narrative of Fragment. The paper goes on to prove that even though Russell has chosen the thriller route, it is his ecocentric perspective that dominates his poetics.

Key words: Eco-thriller, Anthropocene, Inter-species Communication, Craig Russell, Fragment

A thriller is a plot-centred story with a blend of adventure and suspense. Characters in a thriller always face danger of some kind, sometimes they may be in life-and-death situations. Twists of plot play a major role and the readers are kept guessing about how the triumph will be affected and eventually how justice gets done. Among the many sub-genres of thriller, eco-thriller is one. The author of an eco-thriller creates or projects an ecological disaster in the present or in the near future by making reference to real conditions. The adventure framework within which the writer operates, offers enough action and suspense and, in addition, he gives the reader an opportunity to learn about ecological facts. This paper aims at reading Craig Russell’s Fragment as an eco-thriller. The following analysis is an attempt to align the major traits of the eco-thriller genre to Fragment.