Re-imagining the Spatial and Temporal: A Detailed Study of the Narrative Structure of The Shadow Lines

Abstract

In The Shadow Lines (1988), Amitav Ghosh, by employing the technique of a non-linear memory narrative, challenges and questions the dehumanised constructs of society and critically examines the concept of borders and nation. This research paper provides a detailed study of the innovative and fluid narrative created by Amitav Ghosh in which he re-imagines the spatial and temporal boundaries with the help of memory montages. In this novel the narrator traverses physically and psychologically over a span of forty years and analyses the heterotopic spaces and pathological effect of violence, partition and war on the marginal groups which suffer from oppression, displacement, exploitation and loss of language and culture.