Unmaking History: Subversive Representation of the Past in Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome

Abstract

In this article Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome is analysed from a postmodern and postcolonial perspective placing it in the sub-genre of what Linda Hutcheon has termed as ‘historiographic metafiction’.  Postcolonial history usually involves a subversive agenda, challenging dominant hierarchies and foregrounding marginalised figures and events to offer new interpretations of the past. The colonial master narrative of Ronald Ross’s discovery of the malarial parasite is juxtaposed against a parallel narrative of subaltern occult practice that comes alive in Ghosh’s story world. Introducing the stories of the marginalized and oppressed groups as rightful historical subjects I have shown how The Calcutta Chromosome questions hegemonic histories and legitimizes sources beyond the official records. In the background of a powerful textualized presence of the master’s narrative, the postcolonial writer offers his own text. And Ghosh, in this genre-baffling novel, has done just that.