Rethinking History: A Study of Shashi Tharoor's Riot As a Postmodern Historiographic Metafiction

Abstract

History and politics has been a persistent concern of the Indian English writers ever since the origin of English novel writing in India. The last three decades have witnessed the publication of many novels that belong to the genre of postmodern historiographic metafiction. Indian authors have engaged themselves in a retelling of the standard versions of history by both experimenting with the narrative technique and a portrayal of multiple points of view that both decenters any authoritative form of knowledge and hints at the possibility of multiple truths. In this article I will try to explore why Shashi Tharoor's novel, Riot can be described as a quintessential postmodern historiographic metafiction, by pointing out its chief features that are present in the novel.