A Comparative Analysis of Anna Burns’s ‘Milkman’ and Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Shadow Lines’

Abstract

This paper attempts to study Anna Burns’s ‘Milkman’ and Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Shadow Lines’ in light of politics, violence, and personal history.  It also studies how narrative technique employed in both the novels shapes our understanding of the fragmented reality.  The study highlights the ubiquitous nature of politics not just through force but also through soft ways to suppress its target.  Further, it shows how the politics of the state largely govern the personal in multiple ways. The literary mediations of the authors attempt to subvert the hegemonic discourse by following a non-linear mode of narration. By underscoring ‘petit récit’, both the authors challenge the veracity of dominant metanarratives of nationhood and history.