First Response to Possible Paper Idea: Cosmopolitanism in Ghosh

An interesting article that I read concerning Ghosh's The Shadow Lines, is titled: "Cosmopolitanism at Home: Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines." This article looks at the relationship between images of home and their relationship to images given of cosmopolitanism as found in the novel. The author advocates that Ghosh means to critique contemporary thought concerning cosmopolitanism by demonstrating a new sort of cosmopolitanism found at home: this is best demonstrated through the narrator's final interaction with May and her presentation of interaction with and being connected to the world through domestic actions. This contrasts Ila's earlier representation of cosmopolitanism that is found in through her recalling Cairo through a memory of the airport bathroom.

Though the article is interesting and yields important insights into the fiction of Ghosh, I feel that the topic of cosmopolitanism is a bit disconnected from what we've been looking at over the semester. However, connected to this argument is the issue of representation of the home within the novel, through memory. The narrator's process of remembering home, the actions that take place there and how it is distinctly influenced by colonial influences is something that I think is extremely interesting. This can be connected to Bhabha's notion of hybridity, along with Said's Orientalist projection of "exotified" india through historical accounts of Egypt and so on, and further Prakrash's account of Images of the third world. I think there is much to draw on, concerning presentation of the home through our readings this past semester.


Really, I want this post to offer the issue of looking at images of home presented within Ghosh's fiction, as well as Pterodactyl. I think Pterodactyl will offer further troubling of those images, revealing, and expounding upon the fact that any image presented maintains further complexities and facets that can and are politicized.

I have another article that want to get through tonight and will hopefully offer reflection upon as well. But I am intrigued about this idea, it offers good length, interesting topics and questions and amble information to draw upon from our work this semester.