Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dr.iiserpune.ac.in:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/7574
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dc.contributor.authorSANCHETI, POOJA
dc.date.accessioned2023-01-31T03:46:57Z
dc.date.available2023-01-31T03:46:57Z
dc.date.issued2023-01
dc.identifier.citationariel: A Review of International English Literature, 54(1), 103-129.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1920-1222
dc.identifier.issn0004-1327
dc.identifier.urihttps://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/874673
dc.identifier.urihttp://dr.iiserpune.ac.in:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/7574
dc.description.abstractAmitav Ghosh's novel The Shadow Lines (1988) is a prominent example of South Asian postcolonial writing in English and features in curricula and criticism as a nuanced instance of the intricacies and traumas of borders and histories in the Indian subcontinent. Nevertheless, both the novel and its critical analysis display a discernible lack of focus on the issue of sexual violation. In this essay, I undertake a close reading and feminist analysis of one character, May Price. I examine how Ghosh represents her in the novel and argue that critics have read her reductively, if at all. When she is discussed, critics either ignore her identity as a foreign woman who is sexually violated by the Indian protagonists (Tridib and the narrator) or problematically couch the incidents of sexual violation in the vocabulary of romantic love and consent. The narrative, focalized through its patriarchal narrator, whose perspective is obviously created through authorial choices, allows the character no agency to protest these violations and no space for redressal or any sustained reactive expression of opposition. Rather, May's hasty resolutions, absolute forgiveness, and belated consent seemingly turn these violations into seductions, exonerating the assaulters entirely. I highlight that The Shadow Lines and attendant critical reflections often choose to examine questions of nation, identity, and memory, which are unquestionably significant, at the expense of the representation and agency of women. In order to address this gap, gendered power dynamics need to be made central and not peripheral to postcolonial scholarship and discussionen_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherJohns Hopkins University Pressen_US
dc.subjectBook Reviewen_US
dc.subjectHumanities and Social Sciencesen_US
dc.subject2023en_US
dc.subjectAmitav Ghoshen_US
dc.subjectThe Shadow Linesen_US
dc.subjectMay Priceen_US
dc.subjectPostcolonial literatureen_US
dc.subjectSexual violationen_US
dc.titleRecovering May Price: A Longitudinal Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines.en_US
dc.typeOtheren_US
dc.contributor.departmentDept. of Humanities and Social Sciencesen_US
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