The Postcolonial Of Amitav Ghosh s Novels Let Us Begin

To understand the postcolonial readings of Amitav Ghosh’s novels let us begin by understanding what postcolonial literature is. In this chapter, I will try to understand what the postcolonial literature does by theorizing the entire process of imperialization or colonization. In the following chapters I will try to understand the postcolonial perspective in Amitav Ghosh’s fictional works. As Peter Barry observes in his Beginning Theory, postcolonial criticism emerged as a distinct category only in the 1990s. It has gained prominence through the influential books like In Other Worlds (Gayatri Spivak, 1987), the Empire Writes Back (Bill Ashcroft, 1989), Nation and Narration (Homi Bhabha, 1990) and Culture and Imperialism (Edward Said, 1993). A recurring feature of postcolonial writing is the attempt to identify the differential cultural identity. As oppositional discourse, postcolonial literature seeks to undermine the European discursive tradition that has promoted the entire process of imperialization. The postcolonial theory challenges system of conceptualizations and representation that justify and help maintain imperialist power during and after the age of colonization. As a means to achieve this end, the postcolonial theory seeks to establish a differential identity in an impulse to decolonize the mind. It challenges and resists the Western cultural hegemony. Over the last few decades postcolonial theory has evolved through different stages to encompass a variety of