Narrativity and the Problematics of ‘Authenticity’ in Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

Abstract

Postcolonial historical fictions, set in turbulent times, grapple with the question of ‘authenticity’ in their fictional representations of events and individuals of the past. Trinidadian novelist Kevin Jared Hosein’s Hungry Ghosts (2023), set in the estate barracks and surrounding milieu of 1940s Trinidad, is no exception. The paper argues for a nuanced understanding of the term ‘authenticity’ in our reading of historical fictions, and explores Hosein’s use of the formal, imaginative and affective dimensions of narration in negotiating representational adequacy and strengthening the significant thematic concerns in the text. Through textual analysis, the paper explores how Hosein situates his text firmly within the spatio-temporal reality of the period and captures the struggles of ‘becoming’ confronting a population whose lives are coloured by historical trauma and continuing spatial hierarchy.

Keywords:

• Kevin Jared Hosein
• Hungry Ghosts
• postcolonial literature
• historical fiction
• narration
• authenticity

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See Williams (1964: 105) for the detailed report by Lechmere Guppy on estate barracks and the deplorable living conditions of the residents.

2 Refer to Kondapi (1951: 372).

3 For details, see Kondapi (1951: 383).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gopika L Ramesh

Gopika L Ramesh is a PhD scholar at Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. She is an alumna of Miranda House and Hindu College, University of Delhi, where she completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in English, respectively. Her research area pertains to Caribbean literature, specifically the works of Trinidadian novelist, Earl Lovelace.

Sharon J

Sharon J is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Madurai Kamaraj University and specialises in Postcolonial Studies, as well as race and ethnicity studies.