'Historiographic Metafiction' in Amitav Ghosh's Novels: the Shadow Lines
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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 13, 2020 ‘HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION’ IN AMITAV GHOSH’S NOVELS: THE SHADOW LINES, GLASS PALACE AND IN AN ANTIQUE LAND Ram Mohan Pandey1 1Research Scholar ,GKV, Haridwar (U.K.) Received: 14 March 2020 Revised and Accepted: 8 July 2020 ABSTRACT: The postmodernism is an era of revolution which calls for changes in every walk of life and all disciplines of knowledge such as literature, philosophy and science. Postmodernism not only rejects modernism but also modifies and overlaps modernism. The postmodern literature abrogates some modern literary techniques and styles. It also appropriates modern techniques by modifying them. Historiographic metafiction is a paradoxical term that consists of two different geners of history and metafiction. Hence, historiographic metafiction is called double self-reflexive because the historiographic metafictional writings reflect their own realistic as well as fictional status. These kinds of writings realize the readers that they are enjoying realistic and fictional texts. This paper systematically analyses the confirmations of historiographic metafiction and also emphasizes the historiographic metafictional features as imbedded in the novels of Amitav Ghosh. Ghosh‟s The Glass Palace and In An Antique Land are the recreation of history with fictional background, characters and stories. KEYWORDS: Metafiction, postmodernism, historiographic metafiction I. INTRODUCTION „Metafiction‟ is termed by William H. Gass in his book Fiction and the Figures of Life. It is a literary genre that is applied in fictional texts and is used to aware the readers about fictional status of a literary text. It self- reflexively describes the use of artificial language, various literary varieties, previous literary or non-literary texts. It put the question mark on relationship between fiction and reality. It reveals the collaboration of fiction with reality that sprouts the elements of fiction in the texts. Metafiction not only includes modernism but it also overlaps the postmodernism. The metafictional writings are the production of fictional events and elements. The modern and postmodern writers adopt it to compile their own writings in a different way. In the metafictional writings, only fictional world is created by the writers through artificial language and fantastical elements. The writers apply metafiction as a kind of narrative technique that self-consciously takes the readers into fictional world. In her own words, Patricia Waugh tries to explain the concept „metafiction‟, “Metafiction is a term given to fictional writings which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artefact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. In providing a critique of their own methods of construction, such writings not only examine the fundamental structures of narrative fiction, they also explore the possible fictionality of the world outside the literary fictional text” (Metafiction: The Theory and Practise of Self-Conscious Fiction 2). „Historiographic Metafiction‟ is, a postmodern literary technique, coined by Linda Hutcheon in her book entitled A Poetics of Postmodernism (1988). The historiographic metafiction has come into existence during the postmodern era. The postmodern writers have popularized this literary technique through the application in their own writings. It shows the implication and close connection between two different literary genres as history with metafiction. The historiographic metafictional writings are the blending of historical and fictional elements. It is also known as self-reflexive because paradoxically it acquaints readers with historical facts, personages along with fiction. Historiographic metafiction is theoretically called as the self-conscious of history as well as fiction that the writers restructure and rethink because these writings depict self-reflexively the fictional occurrence as well as the factual events. Amitav Ghosh‟s novels The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace and In An Antique Land gives the pleasure of double self-consciousness of fiction and historical representation. It is interlinked with the other postmodernist literary techniques as „intertextuality‟ and „magic realism‟. These techniques are complement to each other because history appears as an intertext in literature. The historiographic metafictional novels are the rewriting of historical facts or events with fictitious characters and stories. The writers use the historiographic metafiction to parodize on political, social and economic condition of India. These writings cannot be defined as metafiction nor historical nor non-fictional texts. 4626 ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 13, 2020 The historiographic metafiction is the postmodern literary technique that paradoxically depicts the contradict ideas and perspectives of the writers in their fictions. The historiographic metafiction represents the simulation and imitative involvement with history, mythology, psychology and other literary texts. The historiographic metafictional writings are the confrontation of fictional/historical depiction, the particular/general, and present and past. The confrontation of the two contradictory perspectives or genres tries to create two worlds imaginative world and real world that takes the readers outside a literary text. The recreation or confrontation of history with fiction fades away the realistic elements from the literary texts. “The interaction of the historiographic and the metafictional foregrounds the rejection of the claims of both “authentic” representation and “inauthentic” copy alike, and the very meaning of artistic originality is as forcefully challenged as is the transparency of historical referentiality” (A Poetics of Postmodernism 110). The writers take the events and personages from history with their fictional elements and narrate them into story form. The Glass Palace and In An Antique Land are depiction of the real events and characters from history into story form. His historiographic metafictional novels are the self-awareness and reworking of history and his research works. In The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh narrates to the readers about the real events and characters the King Thebaw, the queen Supayalat, and their daughters, their immigration and exile from their own native place, the colonization of India, and exploitation of the colonized people and natural resources. Through the historiographic metafiction technique, Amitav Ghosh has tried to reconnect or transport his readers to the outside world of the texts. The writings of Amitav Ghosh are self-consciously metafictional and parodic as well as present the historical references and personages. These kinds of texts are constructed with reality and fiction. A story with a narrator that exposes himself as both a character and the narrator that represents historiographic metafiction. In the novels The Shadow Lines and In An Antique Land, Amitav Ghosh has employed the first person narrative technique to narrate the historical events, political issues and his personal experiences. In his second novel The Shadow Lines, the stories are narrated through the first person unknown narrator. The first person narrator is presented as an omniscient in the texts. The novel The Shadow Lines begins with the first person narrator‟s speech. “In 1939, thirteen years before I was born, my father‟s aunt, Mayadebi, went to England with her husband and her son, Tridib” (The Shadow Lines 3). In The Shadow Lines and In An Antique Land, the narratives are narrated through the first person narrator. In his next novel In An Antique Land, Amitav Ghosh presents himself as a character named Ya-Amitab who goes to Egypt for his research on social anthropology. The narrator of The Shadow Lines is also a research scholar who visits London for his research purpose. The narrators of these novels are the research scholars and the subject of the research is anthropology. Amitav Ghosh is also an anthropologist whose research is on anthropology subject. It refers that Amitav Ghosh is the narrator of these novels. His novels are the adaption and transformation of his research experiences and historical facts. His novels also reveal the autobiographical elements. Rewriting of history and Rethinking is the feature of the historiographic metafictional writings. Fiction and history are the two different narrative genres that present two separate structure and worlds fictional world and real world. Linda Hutcheon coined the term historiographic metafiction by reconstructing fiction and history. In these writings, the writers take characters, and events by transforming them into story form. Linda Hutcheon remarks, “The two geners may be textual constructs, narratives which are both non- originality in their reliance on past intertexts and unavoidably laden, but they do not, in historiographic metafiction at least, “adopt equivalent representational procedures or constitute equivalent modes of cognition. However, there are (or have been) combination of history and fiction which do attempt such equivalence” (A Poetics of Postmodernism 112). Amitav Ghosh‟s novels are the reworking of the colonial history. His novels reveal economic, political and social history of Burma and India. The historical events, issues and personages are restructured and reconstructed as narrative fiction. These writings are known as historical novels because history figures as an intertext in The Glass Palace and In An Antique Land.