Reading Tahmima Anam’s Postcolonial Fiction- A Golden Age in the Light of Fredrick Jameson’s Concept of ‘National Allegory’

doi:10.34104/bjah.022015022

Abstract

Tahmima Anam’s postcolonial fiction- A Golden Age is such a novel that can be called a narrative of the liberation war of Bangladesh. Despite having good art of characterization and universal theme with global appeal, it is plausible to dissect the thought and action of the characters as well as different events of this fiction with the argument of Fredrick Jameson that all the Third-World texts are actually ‘National Allegory’. He asserted that even a text of Third-World seems to contain private feelings and emotions; the underlying meaning is different since the author’s main purpose is to demonstrate the collective state of a nation where individual part matters less. That A Golden Age is a ‘National Allegory’ is the prime concern of this article in which it will be shown how Anam, a daughter of a freedom fighter, has portrayed her characters mainly to articulate the saga of 1971 in Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan).

Highlights

Being born in Bangladesh, Tahmima Anam felt the urge to write the chronicle of this country and so she incorporated the birth pangs of this region through the liberation war in her first fiction- A Golden Age
She seems to inculcate nationalism through personal as well as socio-political activities of both the major and minor characters at different levels of society. She has shown the struggle of the country and its inhabitants as well in order to form a national identity
Though the feelings and emotions of the characters are vividly portrayed through the lucid language of the author which creates a universal appeal and relevance for global readership, national context influences their predicament from time to time and it justifies this postcolonial fiction to be a ‘national allegory’ defined by Fredrick Jameson, an American Marxist thinker

Summary

Introduction

That Sheikh Mujib should have been the new president in order to achieve a free nation where there would have been no chaotic environment to disturb the regular life style of the general people is stated below by Rehana’s speech. In 1971, when the Pakistani army started creating massacre in the Eastern wing, with all the young people Rehana’s children- Maya and Sohail joined which she wanted to prevent wholeheartedly as she could no more bear their absence from her.

Results

Conclusion