An alternative modernism. Proust’s Lesson in "The Shadow Lines"

Amitav Ghosh has often acknowledged Proust as a source of inspiration for The Shadow Lines. To him Proust’s work represented a French alternative to English and American Modernism, where you can still trace a narrative or representational impulse. Building on this statement, the essay investigates the role of narrative in Proust’s “antinovelistic” text, tracking its subtle link to yet another Proustian theme, namely a sense of distrust in the possibility of ever knowing reality, which can be attained only through someone else’s narration. This mediation may open new worlds, like those where the genius of Proust and Ghosh linger for pages. And yet these narratives may become the screen against which every attempt at unveiling the mystery of life and death inexorably crashes, remaining untold.