ABSTRACT
This chapter considers aquatic-themed novels that appear to annul the dividing lines between human and animal—what Giorgio Agamben calls the "caesura"—as they meditate on questions of sacrifice. It focuses on a core comparison between Yann Martel's Life of Pi and Linda Hogan's Power, with a brief analysis of Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide and J. G. Ballard's Rushing to Paradise. Reading Life of Pi alongside Hogan's Power reveals many parallels since both center on mysterious deaths and equally mysterious animals. Life of Pi asks which deaths are justifiable in the name of survival in imperiled human circumstances. Power asks whether a barely surviving belief in humanity's place in a vast natural and spiritual realm, one in which an emblematic animal's sacrifice is sanctioned, can still rejuvenate this world. The Hungry Tide, a flagship text for postcolonial ecocriticism, is highly invested in giving balanced attention to environmental imperatives, animal worlds, and human needs.
