“Today, the Great Devouring Has Begun”
Hunger for the East in Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19043244 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sabine Lauret-Taft (Department of Space, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | ILCEA (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2101-0609 • E-ISSN: 2101-0609 |
| Publisher | OpenEdition (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.4000/15k4p |
| OpenAlex | W7125696531 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
With the Ibis Trilogy, Amitav Ghosh sets out to explore the First Opium War (1838–1842). This paper, dedicated to River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015), the second and third instalments, delves into how the British colonial expansion relied on ways to consume the East and more particularly an orientalist idea of the Other. Weaving together multiple viewpoints, from British traders to Indian soldiers, Ghosh places opium at the heart of a triangle of trade between Britain, India and China. The flow of goods that unfolds in the narrative serves as a pretext to engage with how colonialism was driven by greed and hunger. The many appetites that fuel the British Empire will be analysed in this paper
Alien · British Empire · Colonialism · Empire · Flood myth · Narrative · Opium · Pretext · Smoke · Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development · Indian History and Philosophy · South Asian Studies and Diaspora
| Highly cited | No |
|---|