Thematic patterns in the novels of Amitav Ghosh

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh has become one of the central figures to emerge after the success of Rushdie s Midnight s Children, yet published criticism on Ghosh is not very substantial. Ghosh is one writer who combines history with a very contemporary vision of a world free of discrete divisions. A critical study of the prime thematic concerns of Amitav Ghosh`s novels is thus an opportunity not just to peruse a substantial body of work that meditates up on a core set of issues concerning post colonialism in the contemporary fictional writing with special focus on the marginalised subaltern; but also to view history with a novel perspective. The proposed research work follows the chapter scheme as under. Chapter I: Introduction: The introductory chapter is an endeavour at placing Amitav Ghosh in Modern Indian literary context. It traces the various routes through which the Indian English Fiction has travelled, to reach the present scenario. Chapter II: Entitled The Migrant Subaltern: The Traveller in The Circle of Reason , this chapter attempts an analytical study of The Circle of Reason, with focus on the migrating subaltern and his predicament. Ghosh s penchant for obliterating borders both in terms of themes as well as generic experimentation is introduced in this very first fictional work. Chapter III: Entitled The Blurring Borders: Post-Colonial Travel in The Shadow Lines , this chapter discusses how The Shadow Lines, a non-sequential journey moving back and forth from past to present and back again is an apt revelation of the fragility of the cartographical lines which claim to separate people and communities. CHAPTER IV: Entitled Giving Voice to History: Subaltern Revived in In an Antique Land , the fourth chapter is an attempt at discussing how Ghosh gives a prominent voice to the obscure subaltern, who is lost in the oblivion of historical annals, in an amalgam of a travelogue, an anthropological research thesis, ethnography and a novel.