New Historical Perspective in Ghosh’s In an Antique Land

Abstract

Using New Historicism the researcher examined to depict the history of marginal people and community of ancient period in Amitav Ghosh‘sIn an Antique Land which bears partially history, partially fiction and partially travel writing in which Ghosh trails back to twelfth century and brings the issues how India came into the contact with Egypt at that time with the story of Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant from Tunisia and his Indian slave Bomma. In an Antique Land is a story about Egypt, the antique land and is narrated by a man who himself belongs to another antique land, India. The similarity deals even in the conquests made by the intruders who set up colonies in parts which they made their own. It has three major aspects. First, as a student of Anthropology the novelist searches for the life of Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant from Tunisia and his Indian slave Bomma. Secondly, he has a deep insight into the cultural and social development of Egypt from the religious movements to Operation Desert Storm and thirdly, the dreams and aspirations of ordinary human beings and the effect of political and historical changes in their live. In this sense, Ghosh searches the hidden history of subaltern in this novel.

The researcher got the reports the facts from the observation of the events as an occasional visitor to Nashaway and Malabar. He is also affected by the discourse and power of the class he belongs to. Thus, looking into the novel with the critical examination of the discourse it constructs with the representation of historical facts.