History, Narrative, and Testimony in Amitav Ghosh's Fiction

This is the first collection of international scholarship on the fiction of Amitav Ghosh. Ghosh's work is read by a wide audience and is well regarded by general readers, critics, and scholars throughout the world. Born in India, Ghosh has lived in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His work spans genres from contemporary realism to historical fiction to science fiction, but has consistently dealt with the dislocations, violence, and meetings of peoples and cultures engendered by colonialism. The essays in this volume analyze Ghosh's novels in ways that yield new insights into concepts central to postcolonial and transnational studies, making important intertextual connections and foregrounding links to prevailing theoretical and speculative scholarship. The work's introduction argues that irony is central to Ghosh's vision and discusses the importance of the concepts of "testimony" and "history" to Ghosh's narratives. An invaluable interview with Amitav Ghosh discusses individual works and the author's overall philosophy.

Table of Contents:
Chronological Bioprofile Introduction: Beyond Borders and Boundaries Chitra Sankaran 1. Diasporic Predicaments: An Interview with Amitav Ghosh Chitra Sankaran 2. Unlikely Encounters: Fiction and Scientific Discourse in the Novels of Amitav Ghosh Lou Ratté 3. The Glass Palace: Reconnecting Two Diasporas Nandini Bhautoo-Dewnarain 4. Resignifying “Coolie”: Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace Shanthini Pillai 5. The Girmitiyas’ Journey in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies Rajesh Rai and Andrea Marion Pinkney 6. Shadows and Mysteries: Illusions of Imagined Communities in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines Crystal Taylor 7. Amitav Ghosh’s “Imagined Communities”: The Hungry Tide as a Possible “Other” World Federica Zullo 8. Sharing Landscapes and Mindscapes: Ethics and Aesthetics in Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome Chitra Sankaran 9. Language and Ethics in The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh Tuomas Huttunen 10. Ghosh, Language, and The Hungry Tide Ismail S. Talib 11. Intertexuality in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide Shao-Pin Luo 12. “Dwelling in Travel”: In An Antique Land  and the Making of a Resisting Post-Colonial History Tammy Vernerey 13. The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium and Discovery—A Tour de Force Transcending Genres Ruby S. Ramraj 14. Inner Circles and the Voice of the Shuttle: Native Forms and Narrative Structure in Amitav Ghosh’s The Circle of Reason Robbie B. H. Goh List of Contributors Index