Recovering May Price: A Longitudinal Reading of Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines

Abstract:Amitav Ghosh's novel The Shadow Lines (1988) is a prominent example of South Asian postcolonial writing in English and features in curricula and criticism as a nuanced instance of the intricacies and traumas of borders and histories in the Indian subcontinent. Nevertheless, both the novel and its critical analysis display a discernible lack of focus on the issue of sexual violation. In this essay, I undertake a close reading and feminist analysis of one character, May Price. I examine how Ghosh represents her in the novel and argue that critics have read her reductively, if at all. When she is discussed, critics either ignore her identity as a foreign woman who is sexually violated by the Indian protagonists (Tridib and the narrator) or problematically couch the incidents of sexual violation in the vocabulary of romantic love and consent. The narrative, focalized through its patriarchal narrator, whose perspective is obviously created through authorial choices, allows the character no agency to protest these violations and no space for redressal or any sustained reactive expression of opposition. Rather, May's hasty resolutions, absolute forgiveness, and belated consent seemingly turn these violations into seductions, exonerating the assaulters entirely. I highlight that The Shadow Lines and attendant critical reflections often choose to examine questions of nation, identity, and memory, which are unquestionably significant, at the expense of the representation and agency of women. In order to address this gap, gendered power dynamics need to be made central and not peripheral to postcolonial scholarship and discussion.