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Abstract
Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace (2000) investigates the issue of transcultural identity both in the colonial and post-colonial periods. This article argues that despite Ghosh’s penchant for a pan-Asian participation in the tumultuous historical period spanning from colonization to globalization in one corner of Asia, the novel displays an inclusive spirit of cosmopolitanism. The novel is not an “Orientalist” attempt to assert ethnic identity in the face of aggressive colonial history, but a chronicling of cultural hybridity during and after the colonial period in a part of South Asia, a dismantling of borders between communities and their cultures resulting in the formation of transcultural identity and cosmopolitanism. Ghosh conceives identity as rooted in culture and history and as a reaction to colonialism. The novel celebrates transnational identities rather than ethnic ones, as most of his characters travel extensively across geopolitical borders appreciating a multicultural mélange. Ghosh has not shown any profound scepticism about the importance of specific ethno-cultural attachment in this novel and he adopts the notion of an ever transforming cultural and moral cosmopolitanism.
Contributors: Safoora Arbab, Carlotta Beretta, Lucio De Capitani, Asis De, Lenka Filipova, Letizia Garofalo, Swapna Gopinath, Evelyne Hanquart-Turner, Sabine Lauret-Taft, Carol Leon, Kuldeep Mathur, Fiona Moolla, Sambit Panigrahi, Madhsumita Pati, Murari Prasad, Luca Raimondi, Pabitra Kumar Rana, Ilaria Rigoli, Sneharika Roy, John Thieme, Alessandro Vescovi.
Contributors: Safoora Arbab, Carlotta Beretta, Lucio De Capitani, Asis De, Lenka Filipova, Letizia Garofalo, Swapna Gopinath, Evelyne Hanquart-Turner, Sabine Lauret-Taft, Carol Leon, Kuldeep Mathur, Fiona Moolla, Sambit Panigrahi, Madhsumita Pati, Murari Prasad, Luca Raimondi, Pabitra Kumar Rana, Ilaria Rigoli, Sneharika Roy, John Thieme, Alessandro Vescovi.