Through the Sands of Time: A Historical Exploration in The Glass Palace (original) (raw)
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Imagining Burma in George Orwell’s Burmese Days and Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace
Submitted as my BA dissertation at York, this paper revisits two key literary texts that are seldom analysed together in order to draw out some key themes and influences in the representation and depiction of Burma and the Burmese subaltern subject. With the ongoing fundamental changes that are occurring in contemporary Burma, it is now an urgent matter for the field of literary postcolonial studies to begin to draw Burma and Burmese literature into the critical fold, from which it has been relatively absent. As a corollary, those texts produced in the West that have in some way depicted or ‘imagined’ Burma should be re-examined and this paper focuses on a novel produced in the ‘colonial’ period – George Orwell’s Burmese Days (1934) – and a literary work produced almost seventy years later – Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace (2002). The driving force of this analysis is the concern with how each text interacts with the realities of colonialism in Burma and their effect on the consciousness of the human subject, on the lives of ordinary individuals; be they European, Burmese or Indian. It also marks out a surprising influence upon Ghosh’s work which originates from Burma itself – Mya Than Tint’s On the Road to Mandalay: Tales of Ordinary People (1996) – and which is suggestive of a potential future methodology in drawing Burmese literature into the critical fold. I argue that it is through a concern for the power of communication and an interest in the everyday lives of ordinary people that both Ghosh and Tint figure human resistance to overbearing political structures, and that it is in this same arena that the poignancy of Orwell’s tragic hero’s failure is felt in its fullest force.
A Postcolonial Discourse in Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace
his studyexamines the postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of representationswhich exist in The Glass Palacewritten by Indian postcolonial writer AmitavGhosh. The study also examinesGhosh’s work according to the postcolonial theory and gives importance to the premises of main theorist in this field. The novel The Glass Palaceis a saga about three generations of two closely linked families in Burma, India and Malaya from 1885 to 1956.It is a historical novel about the British colonization of Burma. This novel is more than merely a revisionary rewriting of a portion of the history of the British empire from the perspective of the colonized subaltern. The article, therefore, aims to explore the overall structure of the novel through postcolonial approach and provides examples from the novel regarding the application of some postcolonial elements such as obscurity, memory, imagination, identity, essentialism,otherness, ambivalence, nationalism, space/place, diaspora, hybridity, unbelonging, independence...etc.Key Words:
DIASPORIC CRISIS IN AMITAVGHOSH'S THE GLASS PALACE
Amitav Ghosh is one of the widely known and respected indian writers today.Apart from realistic fiction, he has also written travelogues, political essays and science fiction. In his writing ,Ghosh demonstrates the mixture and interstitial nature of cultures through his language.The Glass Palace is a narrative of brilliant imperial illusions. Even in the moments of total collapse and utter surrender it continues to haunt as a living presence. The Glass Palace much after fall of the palace at Mandalay is a grim reminder of its presence in the psyche of the post colonial subject.As a monument of oriental wealth, it ironically enough, continues to attract even those who were exploited by its royal occupants. If in the pre-colonial period palaces symbolised autocracy and authority, in the colonial period the ruber and tea estates represent sites of exploitatiion. Morningside Rubber Estate of Saya John with Rajkumar as a loyal partner could be seen as another imperial creation which too is eventually shattered by the bombs of Japanese forces. Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace is concerned with the impact of thecolonial encounter on the political, social, and cultural lives of now independent countries, like India, Bangladesh, and Burma.The narrative in this novel is extended up to three generations. Many stories have been woven together. There are many characters , with sagas of families, their lives and connections with , along with their family. Ghosh, a great humanist, raises his powerful voice against oppression and tyranny through this novel. He is against the domination of man by man at all levels – political, military, and economic. The Glass Palace exposes how imperialism has done immense harm to the conquered nations. The Glass Palace is divided into seven parts and each section highlights the various important aspects of the novel. The novel opens with the Anglo-Burmese war of 1885. Two senior ministers of Burma, kinwun Mingyi and Taingda, are very eager to keep the Royal family under guard because they expect rich rewards from the English for handling over the royal couple, King Thebaw and Queen Supayalat, along with their family. This part is called " Mandalay ". This section depicts how the British occupied Burma. As the royal family prepares to surrender, the looters – the Burmese public who had earlier stood far aloof in fear and awe-now quickly move into scavenge what they can find in the palace. Similarly, the British soldiers in charge of shifting the king's precious jewels and ornaments from the palace to the ship that is waiting to take the royal family into exile also pilfer the precious articles. Ghosh here strips veils off human nature to reveal the crude and brutal greed that drives people at various levels. The second section is entitled " Ratnagiri " , in which the calamitous effects of imperialism are shown. With the removal of King Thebaw, monarchy came to an abrupt end, and Burma became a part of the British Empire in India. Bound together in colonial subjugation the two countries and their peoples could never come together.The third section, " The Money Tree, " shows how Rajkumar an orphan , prospers through timber business. The Fourth section , called " The Wedding " , deals with the second generation. Rajkumar's son Neel marries Manju, and people like Arjun and Dinu show fascination for the British. The fifth section " Morning Side " depicts the consequences of the second world war in Malaya. The penultimate section, " The Front " , depicts how characters suffer due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The last section of the novel entitled " The Glass Palace " , deals with the Indian Nationam Movement at its peak and India's final achievement of independence. Three stories run concurrently in the novel. There are two stories of the first generation, that of Rajkumar and Dolly and of B.P. Dey and Uma. The story of the second generation revolves around Neel and Manju. The twists and turns in the lives of these characters are the main sources of interest in the novel. The address of the novel is evidently to certain specific historical circumstances-the colonial past – and it
Society and Culture in South Asia
The proposed paper studies the narratives of ‘borders’ and ‘nations’ on the border lands between India and Burma invoking two works of fiction written in Assamese and English respectively. Jangam (1982) an Assamese novel by Debendranath Acharya is read with The Glass Palace (2000) by Amitav Ghosh to study the stateless lives of people who become victims of operative forces controlling the exclusionary lines of border and nation. Set on the backdrop of World War II, both the novels address the ramifications of border and nation in the lives of common people. They probe less explored geography of the Indo-Burmese border and the ebbs and flows during the colonial and post-colonial times. Popular representations depicting this particular geography have remained elusive, comparing for example, the Indo-Pakistan border. It is argued that the historical narratives of cross border migrations in the colonial times can be reviewed through regional writers’ expressions about home and homelessn...
Diasporic Experience in Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace
In The Glass Palace the scope is far wider in every way. Spatially, it covers three countries, India, Burma and Malaya. Temporally it covers three generations Character wise, there is a pageant of characters so bewildering in variety that it is quite easy, almost inevitable, to get confused among them. No greater swathe has been cut into society by Ghosh than in this novel, for here we have people from all classes.
Theme Of Displacement In Amitav Ghosh'S The Glass Palace And Sea Of Poppies
2017
This paper traces post colonial displacement as presented in Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace and Sea of Poppies. Colonialism resulted in the scattering and displacement of the colonized to various colonies. The novels present the poignant accounts of people scattered through colonial dislocation in various parts of the Asian Continent. While The Glass Palace focuses on the colonization of Burma and the consequent dislocation of young men as soldiers and labourers, Sea of Poppies brings to light the history of colonial opium trade and the full impact of British rule in India- how it devastated local industry and agriculture pattern which resulted in the emigration of Indian peasants. The paper presents the profound effects of displacement on the physical, social and psychological aspects of human life.