Assignment: Paper- E-C-202. Indian Writing in English. Post Independence

Topic: “The Shadow Lines “ as a Memory Novel

Student’s name: Payal G Patel

Roll no- 18

M.A.Sem – II

Batch- 2010-‘11

Submitted to – Mr. Devarshi Mehta.

Department of English.

Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar.

“The Shadow Lines” as a Memory Novel.

                     Before the discussion of “The Shadow Lines” as a memory novel, lets have a glance at Amitav Ghosh's works. He has written many novels as well as non-fiction. He has written the novels like,

(1) The Circle of Reason (1986)

(2) The Shadow Lines (1988)

(3) The Calcutta Chromosome (1996)

(4) The Glass Palace (2000)

(5) The Hungry Tide (2004)

His works like,

(6) Sea of Poppies (2008)

(7) River of Smoke (2011)

Also have been well-renowned by many critics and readers.

 His Contribution to Indian Writing in English (IWE) :

                                            Amitav Ghosh has added a feather of his works on the cap of Indian literature. He has written for many publications also including ‘The Hindu’, ‘the New Yorker’ and ‘Granta’ and taught in the universities in India. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian Government for his distinguished contribution to literature. For “The Shadow  Lines” he won the Sahitya Akademy Award and also many other prizes for other works. This is how Ghosh has contributed his greatest aspect of life, his writings.

The Shadow Lines by Ghosh portraits a picture of symbolism and space. The concept of distance and time are very symbolically portrayed that physical borders divide countries while imagery borders divide human beings.

The very title of this novel seems to be a philosophical one which suggests the borders of countries as well as borders of human mind that human mind is also divided into parts like conscious, unconscious and subconscious. In a way it suggests not only human body or shape but also inner struggle to choose between light and darkness. Ghosh through shadow lines seems to suggest that we view or judge ourselves but it is not always the view for us by others, and until we get deeper understanding of ourselves; we remain in the shadow lines of our enlightenment.

The word shadow, itself symbolizes the mixing of both light and darkness. So, by using this word what Ghosh wants to say is the shadow we see is not always the same reflection of that shadow; after all it is the shadow of our own body but not our inner psyche or mind.

In the history of literature also shadow is perhaps the archetype of secrets. This word suggests something hidden part, the same is presented in the novel that in the memory of the narrator which is hidden part in the narrator’s mind; he narrates the story from his own perspective.

The novel is based on the narrator who was English educated but Indian born person. The narrator shares his own views of foreign countries. Though narrator is English educated, his values, ethics and culture is more Indian than American, suggests that crossing the borders and migrates from any country does not mean that one has crossed culture as well as ethics of his country. The narrative technique of this novel is different because the story of this novel contains layers and each layer is the part of private and public events but the significance of these layers is they all are united as a one.

This novel tells the story of the generation of the narrator’s family which is spared Dhaka, Calcutta and London. The narrator has covered fact and fiction that he has described two or three riots with historical background and some incidents are described through imagination or through his way of perspective.

“The Shadow Lines” as a memory novel

The Shadow Lines is basically a memory novel that covers past and present, childhood and adulthood, India and Bangladesh as well as Britain, Hindu and Muslim. It contains social and political aspects. Memory is an integral part of our psychological process. Auden has said,

“All our intuition mocked

The formal logic of the clock.”

That means reality clock does not restrict your biological clock. It is a scientific clock. Here, in the novel, there are many narrators like Grandmother, May Price and the main narrator who narrates the story with reality and imagination. According to Oxford English Dictionary realism is defined as “clock resemblance to what is real:’’ fidelity of representation, the rendering of precise details of the real thing or scene. This seems to suggest that realism is a representation of someone’s reality which may not get someone others reality. Amitav Ghosh   in his book “The Shadow Lines” presents both reality and imagination.

For example, by placing the text in a real historical time that is post Colonial India with the reference to several historical circumstances like the partition and riots which were really happened and these situations involve the characters around them in the novel. Thus, with these facts the fictional characters are portrayed. He also uses dates as a mean to create a timeline history of the characters to match it with the actual history or historical timeline. For example, the story is also placed in a very real culture, London and Bangladesh with the reference to real places in these cities like Gole Park, Dhakuria Overbridge and Gariahat Road in Calcutta. (pg-8,9) and Lymington road in West Hampsted also adds to the reality effect.

We also may see the concept of borders in the conversations between the characters like Grandmother says to narrator’s Grand father about crossing the borders like,

“Once you start moving you never stop. That’s what I told my sons when they took the trains. I said I don’t believe in this India-Shindia. It’s all very well, you’re going away now, but suppose when you get there they decide to draw an other line somewhere! What will you do then! Where will you move to! No one will ever have you anywhere. As for me, I was born here, and I’ll die here.” (216)

From, this, we may have a question that Do borders exist? And perhaps the answer we may get borders do not exist as far as the geographical area is concerned. Even for some people philosophical borders do not exist, for example Tridib’s (narrator’s uncle), and May’s love has its own reality; it crosses all boundaries and shadow-lines. The narrator’s borders of mind also do not exist because he discusses about the childhood and adulthood and here, we find the mixture of both in his story. Tridib has rightly said,

“We could not see without inventing

What we saw, so at least we could try to do it properly.” (37)

What Tridib here, wants to suggest is we se the things which we have invented but what about those things which are under the darkness. We also see some aspect through imagination also which are not really in existence. Through the characters of Tridib and May the narrator’s perception is perhaps of cosmopolitanism.

“The whole world is a man’s birthplace.”

This quote by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius shows us the basic idea of cosmopolitanism. If we discuss this term deeply, we would find the true sense of the narrator. This term, cosmopolitanism is the theory that a person belongs to no country or nationality but to the humanity, and the world as a whole. For example, when the narrator’s cousin Ila discusses, for the first time, of Nick Price, the child of their age in English family, the narrator wishes to be like him. He also admits “After that day Nick Price...became a spectral presence beside me in my looking glass...always bigger and better, and in some ways more desirable.” (49). It suggests that when Ila describe s Nick, the narrator sees Nick as his mirror image. Here, also we do not find any type of border neither philosophical nor geographical.

The novel is simply the recollection of memory. Here, the faculty of imagination plays a very crucial role because generally we that fact can not exist without fiction. What is the core issue of this novel is the National identity and the events, incidents are the shadow- lines. We better quote here Shelley, as he says,

“We look before and after,

and pine for what is not

our sweetest songs,

with pain are fraught.”

                          [Ode to Skylark]

This novel is about “seeing” and “not seeing”. This also involves the stream of consciousness. The boy narrates everything out of his memory. When we remember the things we are reinterpreted, and whenever we try to interpret any part of our memorial event we have or there may be some different points of view. So, it is all about the way of perceptions.

Another thing should be noted down is its structure. As our memory part is not in a coherent manner, similarly the structure of the novel reflects the thought process of the narrator which also is not systematic. Thus, the sequence of the novel reflects the thought process. Here, the narrator tries to picture the exact process of his memory perception. Memory and imagination work together. They not only co-exist but also work together.

We also may have a question like, is memory imaginative? And the answer is related with the experiences and incidents of one’s memory. For example when we imagine the things, we recall experiences, events, incidents through our memory which already exist. Imagination fabricates our memory means we make up facts that are not true interpret of memory. We do not know the exact location but still we imagine the things. Memory is divided into certain categories like consciousness and unconsciousness. When we have not enough control over consciousness we go to unconscious parts and which touch to the surface of the conscious part. In this novel most of the events are imaginative except two or three riots as earlier it has been discussed. Memory is collective consciousness and archetype as well.  For example to make this novel universally acceptable he uses archetypes. We find shadow lines existing in existing theory. So, what is conveyed here is categorization is purposeless process because borders do not exist.

One should not avoid the different technique of Amitav ghosh. It is the systematic study of Narratology. The narrative technique relives the way of narrator’s perception of the things here. The role of memory is important because nations, religions, wars, violence, partition etc divide people but memory does not divide. Imagination creates a world that cannot be divided. The shadow lines between people and between countries have merged and become one. Borders did not exist in the countries ever but in our mind.

The division of the novel into two parts- “Going  Away “ and “ coming Home” – is itself a conscious attempt of the novelist to break down some of the time-  tested notions of experiences. For example the Grandmother of the narrator was born and brought up in Dhaka and now living in Calcutta, recalls her childhood days and mentions to her son that in those days before partition there were no borders,

“I could come to Dhaka whenever I wanted.”(152)

All that time the narrator experience his views over coming and going.

“ Tha’mma, Tha’mma! I cried. How could you have ‘come’ home to Dhaka? You don’t know the difference between coming and going!”(152)

There are two possible interpretations like one is the process of coming and going and another thing is the nation without boundaries. Throughout the novel what is more important is the clock whether it is biological clock or reality clock. As earlier the idea has been derived, the reality clock has been restricting your biology clock.    

              

Conclusion:

                      This novel is open-ended, so reader may give any of the interpretations.  One of them is, Amitav Ghosh seems to suggest the borders in the minds of human beings and humanity.