ORIENTALIST REPRESENTATION OF POST-COLONIAL MUTINY NOVEL: A STUDY OF J. G. FARRELL’S THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR (1973)

Abstract

It is true that many recurring historical events changed and shaped the course of history politically, religiously, culturally, and regionally. The British policy of colonising distinct corners of the world played a crucial and decisive role in numerous ways for the transmission and transition of world history. With the advancement in different areas, the field of literature has also grappled with history under the umbrella of the historical fiction genre and resultantly a number of significant historical events are being narrated with distinct perspectives. Most of the time, such narrations seem to have portrayed one side of the coin and neglected the other completely. This article aims to study the novels of J. G. Farrell’s Empire Trilogy, The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) and Troubles (1970) from a post-colonial perspective. By using these novels as primary sources, this research explores the way these novels deal with the motif of mutiny. The narratives of these novels are processed and scrutinised through discourse analysis and textual analysis. Through the lens of post-colonialism, this research aims to argue that many myths of orientalism and those generated by colonialism are still prevalent in the narratives that are produced in the post-imperial age.