Indian Writing in English has proliferated over the last few decades and has made a huge impact on English readers. Not only do the works of Indian authors writing in English find a place on the best-seller list, they are also receiving critical acclaim across the world. Starting from Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand to V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh, we have an array of writers adorning the literary horizon. All these writers have considerable following in the English speaking countries, and Amitav Ghosh certainly occupies an important place among them, and is much acclaimed for his literary style and content.
One of the most prolific postcolonial writers writing today, Amitav Ghosh has received many awards: The Circle of Reason winning the Prix Medici Etranger (one of France’s top literary award), The Shadow Lines winning the Sahitya Akademi Award, and The Calcutta Chromosome bagging the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997. His later novels, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire showcasehis capacity for epic narration, with each of these texts in the Ibis series, exploring the layered dimensions of identity and cultural form.
This book, in its second edition, continues to be an anthology of critical essays, and deals with fictional as well as non-fictional works of Amitav Ghosh. It focuses on Ghosh’s idea and theory of the novel, postcolonial rationality in The Circle of Reason, nationalism in the context of Partition in The Shadow Lines, and the East-West encounter in The Calcutta Chromosome. Besides, it also discusses power structure operating within the narrative of The Glass Palace, and the question of space, identity and cultural difference in The Hungry Tide. Though different from each other, some of the essays take up common themes for discussion and offer new insights into Ghosh’s works.
New to this Edition
This edition introduces critical analyses of Ghosh’s three much talked-about books from Ibis Triology: Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke(2011) and the most recent one Flood of Fire (2015). The essays examine the plots of the two novels highlighting the Opium culture being cultivated in India by the colonial powers.
This book is meant for the undergraduate and postgraduate students of English literature. Besides, all those readers who wish to delve deeper into the works of Amitav Ghosh will find reading the text extremely informative, and useful.
About the Author
Bibhash Choudhury (PhD) is Associate Professor, Department of English, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam. His book English Social and Cultural History—An Introductory Guide and Glossary published by PHI Learning, Delhi, has been well-accepted by the students and academics all over India.
Table of Contents:
Preface • Acknowledgements
1. Amitav Ghosh, Modernity and the Theory of the Novel — Bibhash Choudhury
2. Police and Postcolonial Rationality in Amitav Ghosh’s The Circle of Reason— Yumna Siddiqi
3. National Allegory and Partition in The Shadow Lines — Thomas F. Halloran
4. Postcolonial Melancholy: An Examination of Sadness in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines — Ian Almond
5. The Calcutta Chromosome: Re-reading Western Cultural Hegemony — Isabella Bruschi
6. In An Antique Land: A Fragmentary History of the Indian Ocean — Claire Chambers
7. The Suave Steps of Memory and Rebirth: Dancing in Cambodia, Stories in Stones, At Large in Burma — Andrea Duranti
8. Mapping of Power Discourse in The Glass Palace — N.K. Rajalakshmi
9. ‘You and Your Stories’: Narrating the Histories of the Dispossessed in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children — Hywel Dix
10. Rethinking ‘Diaspora’: A Postcolonial Reading of The Hungry Tide and A Fine Balance — Debashree Dattaray
11. The Cult of the Bomb: Amitav Ghosh’s Countdown — Sandip Ain
12. Fraught with a Background: Identity and Cultural Legacy in Sea of Poppies — Bibhash Choudhury
13. Sea of Poppies: The Myriad Shifts of Colonialism in Transit — Prasenjit Das
14. Critical Theory, History and Fiction: A Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke — Lalan Kishore Singh
15. From Recuperation to Enactment of History: Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of Fire — Sandip Ain
The Contributors • Index
