Object of the Study Approach of the Study

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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 32 claims once made on behalf of literature by liberal humanist critics” Barry, 2002:192. This idea of unseating liberal-humanist approach has born from the belief that in such universalism, “Eurocentric values, principles, norms and practices are being promoted” Barry, 2002:193. There are characteristics of postcolonial reading. Firstly, it refuses the perception for the non-European as exotic or immoral ‘Other’. This awareness is evoked also by a rejection on contemporary and modern nation, for it has been tainted with the colonial status. Secondly, it pays much attention on language. Some postcolonial writers have concluded that “The colonisers’ language is permanently tainted, and that to write in it involves a crucial acquiescence in colonial structures” Barry, 2002:195. The third characteristic is that it emphasises on identity as doubled, hybrid, or unstable. Fourthly, there is ‘cross- cultural’ interaction in the transition undergone by postcolonial writers. This interaction involves three phases: ... Adopt, when a writer tries to adpot the form of colonial literature; ... Adapt , since it is the phase where European style is adapted to a non- Western material; ... Adept, a phase in declaration of ‘cultural independence’ that the writer make a form of literature without any reference to Western norms Barry, 2002:196. This study uses poststructuralist view of postcolonial criticism. The most common theorists of this view is Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri C. Spivak. Bhabha has written some books concerning to redefine the postcolonial identity, arguing that in the globalizing world there is an urgent need to regard someone’s identity as hybrid and always in flux of an on-going identification process. By theorizing 33 and offering a radical redefinition of identity and culture, Bhabha has opened up a new ground for postcolonial study, mainly of postcolonial identity..

C. Method of the Study