At the Interface of Colonial Knowing and Unknowing: A Critical Reading of the Golden Camellia in Amitav Ghoshs River of Smoke
- Title
- At the Interface of Colonial Knowing and Unknowing: A Critical Reading of the Golden Camellia in Amitav Ghoshs River of Smoke
- Creator
- Jayagopalan G.
- Description
- This paper is a critical reading of Amitav Ghoshs fictional representation of modes of acquisition, assimilation and dissemination of colonial knowledge in River of Smoke (2012). The paper highlights the cultural exchange of botanical and horticultural knowledge between Europe and China in the nineteenth century narrativized by Ghosh. The novel illustrates the significance of non-Eurocentric modes of conserving knowledge that would otherwise suffer from the violence of utilitarian models of European epistemology. The paper explicates how Ghosh represents the Chinese as successful in ensuring that the Golden Camelliaa rare flowering variety in Chinais preserved from falling prey to the profiteering logic of botanical expeditions and epistemic hegemony by European naturalists. Using Pramod Nayars imperial cosmopolitanism and Robert Proctors agnotology as critical frames, the paper maps Ghoshs fictional representation of Chinese horticulturists using botanical illustration to disable Europeans from accessing the Golden Camellia. By circulating the nonexistence of the plant variety as the truth, the Chinese horticulturalists in the novel prevent the Golden Camellia from being usurped and profiteered by European botanists and plant traders. The paper also establishes how Ghoshs work functions as a significant addition to works foregrounding the South-South connection in the South Asian literary imagination. 2020 South Asian Literary Association.
- Source
- South Asian Review, Vol-41, No. 45750, pp. 350-362.
- Date
- 2020-01-01
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Subject
- agnotology; Amitav Ghosh; colonial botany; Golden Camellia; River of Smoke; South Asian literatures
- Coverage
- Jayagopalan G., Department of English and Cultural Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India
- Rights
- Restricted Access
- Relation
- ISSN: 2759527
- Format
- Online
- Language
- English
- Type
- Article
Collection
Citation
Jayagopalan G., “At the Interface of Colonial Knowing and Unknowing: A Critical Reading of the Golden Camellia in Amitav Ghoshs River of Smoke,” CHRIST (Deemed To Be University) Institutional Repository, accessed February 24, 2025, https://archives.christuniversity.in/items/show/16339.