Memory, Displacement and Exile in The Glass Palace

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace (2000) explores the intersections of empire, exile, and diasporic identity across South East Asia in Burma, India, and Malaya. This paper examines how the novel positions memory, displacement and exile—as both an emotional inheritance and a political force. Drawing on theories of postmemory and trauma by Marianne Hirsch, Paul Ricoeur, and Aleida Assmann, it argues that Ghosh constructs a counter-history of empire through intergenerational storytelling. Characters such as King Thebaw, Rajkumar, and Dolly embody the fractures of colonial dislocation while sustaining cultural continuity across borders. In highlighting how trauma and displacement are remembered and transmitted, The Glass Palace focusses on the ethical imperative of bearing witness to silenced histories.