ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 13, 2020 ‘HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION’ IN ’S NOVELS: , GLASS PALACE AND

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 . These writings cannot be defined as metafiction nor historical nor non-fictional texts.

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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 , 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. History depends on the writers who skilfully use it narrative form and provide language and ideology to show the readers how and what really happened. In his novels, Amitav Ghosh recreates and rewrites the colonial history and his research work on anthropology. His writings represent the two different literary geners history and fiction. The combination of these two geners is termed as „historiographic metafiction‟. His writings are known as historiographic metafictional writings. The novel The Glass Palace is the recreation and reworking of The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma that is the description of Konbaung Dynasty. In The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh retells how the British Empire attacked, and colonized Burma. The European colonizers exploited and transported the natural resources and Burmese people for their own benefits. The colonizers forced the colonized people to lead the pauperized and miserable lives from starvation and poverty. He takes the characters Thebaw, Supayalat and their three daughters from The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma. He also puts the events and issues regarding their own lives and narrates them into story form. The colonizers exploited the Burmese people and transported them in the remote places as the slaves and indentured labours. They were troubled to do the rigorous frivolous and insignificant works in the sugar mills, factories, rickshaw pulling and grain fields for their

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 13, 2020 livelihood. The king Thebaw, the queen Supayalat and their daughters were forcefully expatriated from their own ancestors‟ Royal palace to Ratnagiri. They had to suffer a lot of problems and lead miserable lives under the British Empire. He also depicts that the British Army attacked Burma to fulfil their own trivial desires and selfishness for teak woods. The European colonizers transported the teak wood to the European countries. “The English are preparing to send a fleet up the Irrawaddy. There‟s nothing to be a war. Father says they want all the teak in Burma. The King won‟t let them have it so they‟re going to do away with him” (The Glass Palace 15). His next novel In An Antique Land is the portrayal of historical facts, anthropology, sociology and his individual experiences that present the interconnection between past and present. In the novel In An Antique Land, he interprets the war of Iran-Iraq (1980), the pre-colonial and postcolonial history and Operation Desert Storm. The novel also builds two worlds, one real world and the other fictional one. The characters Abraham Ben Yiju, Ashu and Bomma represent the real world and the other characters Abu-Ali, Shaikh Musa, Sakhina, Jabir, Hasan, Ahmed, Ustaz Mustafa, Mabrouk, Amm Taha, Ali, Fawzia and Isma‟il denote to the fictional world. He self-consciously creates the harmony in the historical and fictional worlds. The readers are unable to differentiate between the real world and the fictional world. Historiographic Metafictional writings never give conclusion and the last page of the novels are left intentionally for the readers. The readers are free to conclude according to their own ways. His novels The Glass Palace and In An Antique Land are the rewriting and reconstruction of the historical events and past in fiction without any conclusion. “Postmodern fiction suggests that to re-write or to re-present the past in fiction and in history is, in both cases, to open it up to the present, to prevent it from being conclusive and theological” (A Poetics of Postmodernism 110). As the historiographic metafiction is a postmodernist literary technique that is applied by Amitav Ghosh in The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land and The Glass Palace. He has not given conclusion at the end of the novel that creates suspension in the readers. For example, in the novel The Shadow Line, the narrator and Robi travel to England. “May had telephoned to ask me to dinner”. The narrator reaches May to meet her in her home. May describes the narrator how the mob kill Tridib, the rickshaw puller and Jethamosai. “The men had melted away, into the gullies. When I got there, I saw three bodies. They were all dead. They‟d cut Khalil‟s stomach open. The old man‟s head had been hacked off. And they‟d cut Tridib‟s throat, from ear to ear” (The Shadow Lines 276). The narrator and May finished their dinner and she went to wash the utensils in the kitchen. He moves forward towards May and grasps her shoulders. She puts her heads on his chest. She asks him to stay with her and spend night in her house. “I stayed, and when we lay in each other‟s arms quietly, in the night, I could tell that she was glad, and I was glad too, and grateful, for the glimpse she had given me of a final redemptive mystery” (The Shadow Lines 277). This is the last speech of the narrator and with the paragraph, the novel is finished without giving conclusion. Amitav Ghosh has not told the readers what happens with the other characters. How are the conjugal lives of Ila and Nick Price going on and is Ila happy with Nick? The novel In An Antique Land is based on Ghosh‟s D. Phil research on the „social anthropology‟. Amitav Ghosh also participates as Ya Amitav who is a research scholar and goes to Egypt for his research work. The novel ends abruptly without giving any conclusion at the end. He doesn‟t reveal the readers whether his (Ya-Amitab) research is completed or not and what has happened with the characters as Mabrouk, Mohammad, Eid and the other characters who participate in Iran-Iraq War for their livelihood and better future. The novels The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land and The Glass Palace are written without conclusion because Ghosh dose not tell his readers about the characters and suddenly the novel has got end. In the novel The Glass Palace, he does not disclose to the readers what has happened with the king Thebaw, the queen Supayalat, their daughters (Augasta and Evelyn), Dinu, Jaya, Dolly, Saya John, Ma Cho, Uma and the other characters at the last that form doubts in the readers. He tells the readers how the Konbaung Dynasty has got fall down and how the royal family are compelled to exile from Burma to Ratnagiri but he does not describe that now the royal family is alive or died and they have got their own rights and the Royal Palace or not. In his novels, Amitav Ghosh like the postmodern writers does not give the description of the characters at the last page of any novel. All the novels of Amitav Ghosh don‟t have conclusion because he has left the conclusion on the readers that the readers can conclude according to their own point of views.

II. REFERENCES

[1] Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge. 2017. [2] --- Post-Colonial Studies the Key Concept. London and New York: Routledge. 2013. [3] --- The Empire Writes Back. London and New York: Routledge. 2002. [4] Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London and New York: Routledge.1995. [5] Currie, Mark. Metafiction. London and New York: Routledge. 2013. [6] Dhawan, R. K. The Novels of Amitav Ghosh. New Delhi: Prestige Books. 2010.

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 13, 2020 [7] Ghosh, Amitav. In An Antique Land. New Delhi: Penguin. 2008. [8] --- The Glass Palace. New Delhi: Harper Collins. 2014. [9] --- The Shadow Lines. New Delhi: Ravidayal Publishers. 2008. [10] Heilmann, Ann, and Mark Llewellyn. Metafiction and Metahistory in Contemporary Women‟s Writing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. [11] Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism. New York and London: Routledge. 1988. [12] --- Narcissistic Narrative the Metafictional Paradox. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 1980. [13] Kolesnkioff, Nina. Russian Postmodernist Metafiction. New York: Peter Lang. 1943. [14] Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. For. Fredric Jameson. USA: Manchester University Press. 1984. [15] Peters, Joan Douglas. Feminist Metafiction and the Evolution of the British Novel. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 2002. [16] Pomeroy, Barry. Historigraphic Metafiction or Lying with the Truth. Bear‟s Carvery. 2015. [17] Waugh, Patricia. Literary Theory and Criticism. New York: Oxford university Press. 2010. [18] --- Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. Ed. Terence Hawkes. London and New York: Routledge. 2001.

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