Research Paper
Year: 2018 | Month: October | Volume: 5 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 134-144
History and Memory in J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur
Sarah Zaré Farjoodi
Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
ABSTRACT
Unlike most Victorian novels in which the colonies and colonial matters are kept in the background, J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, as the title suggests, brings the colonial affair to the fore and depicts the minutiae of an event in Victorian imperial history that brought about lasting anxieties, namely the 'Indian Mutiny' of 1857. Following Astrid Erll’s study on the event as a shared lieu de mémoire, this essay examines the ways through which the text offers an alternative memory narrative to the British mutiny myth. Through unreliable narration, stereotypical characterization, unsettling the long-held hierarchies, widespread disillusionment, and role reversals, Farrell aims at undermining the British faith in progress and civilization that justified imperial encroachment on Indian land.
Key words: counter memory, disillusionment, neo-Victorianism, postcolonialism, uprising
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