Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF LITERATURE

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D. Theoretical Framework

I use postcolonial approach in viewing the Identity re-negotiation of Arjun, a colonised subject in The Glass Palace. This perspective is applied in order to examine the problem of subject formation undergone by a mimic man in the British Indian Army. Bhabha’s hybridity and liminality are used to examine Arjun’s desire and resistance to the British imperialists, his former co-workers. Since his struggle is mainly caused by the discourse of mimicry, I use Bhabha’s psychoanalytic reading of mimicry and the theory of false-consciousness to analyze the vicissitudes and nature of colonial strategy. Given account to Loomba’s criticism on Bhabha’s generalized hybridity, I then take the point of Indian Society as the context in which Arjun’s hybridity should be learnt. The information of this society is limited to begin in 1923, just as the year of Arjun’s birth, to post-World-War II in which India Nationalist Movement sets its rebellion against the Empire. The theory of characterization becomes the tools to point out the ‘characterization’ of Indian Society and British Indian Army. I also refer to some related studies upon The Glass Palace and use them to enrich the analysis of Arjun’s hybridity. 31

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The Glass Palace paperback ed. 2001 is a historical novel by Indian writer Amitav Ghosh. The title of the novel derives from the Glass Palace Chronicle, which is an old Burmese historical work commissioned by King Bagyidaw in 1829. This novel was published by HarperCollinsPublishers and now it has been translated and published in 25 different languages. The Glass Palace has won several awards and prizes. This 522-pages novel was The Eurasian regional winner in the “Best Book” category of the 2001 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. On the same year, it was the Winner of Grand Prize for Fiction in Frankfurt eBook Award. Also in the year 2001, New York Times included The Glass Palace as the Notable Books of 2001. Nay Win Myint, a Burmese writer, has translated The Glass Palace into Burmese and the novel was published as series in one of Burma’s leading literary magazines Shwe Amyutay. But, because the last part of the novel is an extended elegy to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Press Scrutiny Board asked for many cuts in that Burmese translation.

B. Approach of the Study

This study is aimed to be a postcolonial reading of a literary work. One significant idea of postcolonial criticism is “to further undermine the unversalist