International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Call for Paper Volume 8, Issue 1 (January-February 2026) Submit your research before last 3 days of February to publish your research paper in the issue of January-February.
Submit Research Paper Join as a Reviewer

Plagiarism is checked by the leading plagiarism checker TurnItIn

Call for Paper

Volume 8 Issue 1
January-February 2026

Submit your research paper

Indexing Partners
Academia Advanced Sciences Index Bielefeld Academic Search Engine CiteSeer DRJI Google Scholar Independent Search Engine & Directory Network ISI (International Scientific Indexing) Issuu Mendeley Research Networks
RefSeek ResearcherId - Thomson Reuters ResearchGate Scirus Scribd Semantic Scholar UTeM - Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Wiki for Call for Papers WorldCat Zenodo

Chronesthesia, Biosemiotics, and Immutable Mobiles: Early Signs of Climate Change in James Herbert’s Portent

Author(s) Ms. SELVANAYAKI V, Dr. KASIRAJAN M
Country India
Abstract Climate change is extensively studied across both scientific and cultural paradigms. In each historical timeline, the climate change and environmental crisis are often registered indirectly as signs, anomalies, and narratives. The early proto–climate fiction did not rely on climatological data or predictive models; instead, it encoded ecological anxiety through signs and symbolic events. James Herbert’s Portent (1992) exemplifies this mode of early climate consciousness through its striking use of a real newspaper cutting as the novel’s opening device. This study analyses the newspaper cutting in the opening section of James Herbert's early proto–climate fiction Portent (1992). The central objective of the paper is to examine how Herbert’s use of an authentic newspaper article, making it function as an immutable mobile, documents the global planetary crisis across temporal, spatial, and epistemic boundaries. The findings of the study are threefold. Firstly, the penguin stampede operates as a sign-event that communicates ecological distress. Secondly, through Chronesthesia, the newspaper cutting activates a temporal awareness to interpret and record the present anomalies in the news as signals of an impending global planetary crisis during the early 1990s. Thirdly, the study situates Portent within the genealogy of climate fiction by mobilising biosemiotic signs and anticipatory temporality rather than explicit climate science. By positioning factual data before the fictional narrative begins, Herbert blurs the boundary between reality and fiction, thereby presenting literature as an early warning system capable of sensing environmental stress.
Keywords Climate Change, Penguin Stampede, Chronesthesia, Immutable Mobiles, Signs, Biosemiotics and Literature.
Field Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In Volume 8, Issue 1, January-February 2026
Published On 2026-02-04
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i01.68073
View / Download PDF File

Share this



E-ISSN 2582-2160
CrossRef

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

IJFMR DOI prefix is
10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads
Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 8 Isu 1Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 6Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 5

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA Open Access

About IJFMR
Fees & Payment
Current Issue
Publication Archive 		Submit Research Paper
Track Submission Status
Publication Guidelines
Publication Ethics
Peer Review & Plagiarism 		Join as a Reviewer
Editors & Reviewers
Reviewer Referral Program
Get Reviewer Membership Certi. 		Website/Journal Policies
Usage Policy
Content Policies
Privacy Policy
Contact Us +91-9687-828-838 editor@ijfmr.com