Interrogating History through Fiction: A Study of Amitav Ghosh's The Calcutta Chromosome
Keywords:
Amitav Ghosh, Post-colonial, TruthAbstract
The article discusses postcolonial literature and its fusion with postmodernism through the works of Amitav Ghosh. Postcolonial writers reject institutionalized versions of history and instead question the dominant perspective. Ghosh's novels, including The Calcutta Chromosome, blend history with fiction, using techniques like magical realism and supernatural elements to present an alternate perspective of reality. The novel deals with medical history, computer applications, and religious cults against the backdrop of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in India, America, Britain, and Egypt. Ghosh's use of characters and incidents helps to dismantle the Western sense of superiority through Indian philosophy and presents the authority of marginalized Indian people over Western higher-class scientists. The author notes that different postcolonial writers employ diverse techniques to portray various aspects of history.
References
Adhikari, Madhumalati. “The Calcutta Chromosome: A Post-Colonial Novel”, The Fiction of Amitav Ghosh. Ed. Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandam. New Delhi: Creative Books, 2001. 177- 183.
Adhikari, Madhumalati. “Telling and Showing: The Cinematic Narrative Technique in The Calcutta Chromosome”, The Novels of Amitav Ghosh. Ed. R. K. Dhawan. New Delhi: Prestige, 1999. 270- 274.
Ghosh, Amitav. The Calcutta Chromosome. New Delhi: Ravi Dayal, 2006.
Sleman, Stephen. “A Post-Colonial Allegory and the Transformation of History”, Journal of Commonwealth Literature XXII.
