著者

松田 雅子

出版者

長崎大学 環境科学部

雑誌

長崎大学総合環境研究 = Journal of Environmental Studies (ISSN:13446258)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, no.2, pp.55-65, 2011-06

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Kiran Desai, who was born in 1971 in New Delhi, received the Booker Prize in 2006 as the youngest female writer by The Inheritance of Loss. The hardship of Indian people in the post colonial societies of 1980s in North India and in New York are described along with the humiliating recollection of an Indian young man, who later becomes a judge, studying in Cambridge during the World War II. Most characters in the novel experience some kind of loss as they inherite colonial legacy even after the independence of India. Around 1980s it is widely recognized that bidirectional viewpoints from both former colonies and imperial countries are necessary to understand the present world of post colonialism because they are closely related and affecting each other. This novel reveals such complexities in different levels of society. Storytelling by the Indian heroine, Sai, reflects her position in India as one of its elite members, showing some characteristics of complicit postcolonialism. However, the community of the elite Indians collapses and loses its power at the end, therefore, it is concluded that the novel shows oppositional postcolonialism at the same time. In addition, polyphonic voices of characters in the three plots makes it possible to reveal complexity of postcolonial society in India.