الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 144 |  |  |
| | | from | 144 | | |
Abstract
Chapter One will include an exploration of postcolonialism as a field of study, a critical theory, and a literary genre. It will also give an overview of how imperialism, as a concept, was important in solidifying the West’s own perception of its superiority as well as how it helped in maintaining its privileged status. Since the novels will be examined through a postcolonial lens, this chapter lays the necessary foundation for the following chapters’ in-depth exploration of the novels.
Chapter Two delves into the worlds of both the lascars and the girmitiyas. While they differ as groups in the ways they function and their place in the world, they both share a subaltern position. Both are affected by imperial hegemony, and both have remained voiceless until the recent academic attempts that have been made at excavating their buried voices. This chapter explores their positions within the British Empire, the ways in which they are subjugated, as well as instances where they exercise their agency.
Chapter Three moves on to explore imperialism at work in both the legal sphere and the economic sphere as well as its effects on complicit colonised subjects. Neel’s trial is of interest here, because the use of racist discourse is displayed clearly, along with its function in the Empire. The opium trade in Canton will also be a point of interest, since free trade rhetoric was used to justify the imperial advances of the British. And the ensuing conflict, between the British and the Chinese, offers great insight into the ways British imperial agents justified and legitimised their predatory encroachment. This was a tense moment in history, right before the outbreak of the First Opium War, and one of the perspectives’ offered in RS, is that of Bahram. His precarious and complex subject position as an Indian opium merchant will be explored in detail to reveal the ways in which he complies as well as resists the imperial hegemonic structures he inhabits.