American Research Journal of English and Literature

Amitav Ghosh sets history as a background for his novel. He gives importance to the individuals but not to the background. History rumbles discreetly at the background throughout his novels. Take for instance, The Glass Palace which is an ambitious work of fiction which covers more than a century of history and four generations of characters spread across India and South East Asia. All the novels of Ghosh demonstrate the author’s voice in balancing the sweep of history with the depth and complexity of the individual. Ghosh spins his tale with harrowing precision and insight, leaving the reader with a lingering disquiet about how the forces of history can irrevocably alter the lives of ordinary men and women. Human historian in Ghosh novels travels between cultures/lands and negotiates what has now come to be called the ‘third space’ in the way of anthropological studies. The extant criticism on Ghosh’s work has exposed significant socio cultural representations. One of the concerns is the representation of history which interfaces fiction which has become the subject of much critical debate on new historicism. The themes of all Ghosh’s oeuvre are perceived for the individual characters at the expense of active historical characters. This article in all its satirical representation critiques on new historicism in a discursive manner. It reveals the complicit formulation of post national future within the framework of history interface fiction. Ghosh associates undesirable nationalism with historical background. However, for my article presentation I have chosen the title called “The New historical Dimensions of the Discursive Historicism in the fiction of Amitav Ghosh –A Critical Perspective” which makes an exploration of the aspects of history which interface fiction in the novels of Ghosh. However I tried to interpret the nature of this article by observing it from the various cultural aspects of contemporary Indian society.