Analysis Of Orientalism In Heat And Dust

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a booker prize winner best known for her novel Heat and Dust published in 1975 Jhabvala has written many novels, screenplays, and short stories such as To Whom She Will 1955, Like Birds, Like Fishes 1963, and Get Ready for Battle 1962. Jhabvala considers herself as a citizen of both worlds east and west. The narrator in Heat and Dust is eager to know the real story behind Olivia -her grandfather's wife- and her elopement with an Indian prince, by going to the same places where Olive had lived. But, at the end the narrator has experienced her own memories through searching for Olivia's memories and the past. In Heat and Dust Jhabvala illustrates from the beginning the relationship between Olivia and an Indian prince, the Nawab in the light of Orientals. This paper will give a post- colonial reading of the elements of Heat and Dust through Orientalism. …show more content…
Heat and Dust discusses the relationships and friendships between westerns and Indians in the light of Orientalism. THE WASHINGTON POST stated that Heat and Dust is written in a highly technical skill, by representing the Anglo-Indian relationships which remind us of E.M. Forster's masterpiece, A Passage to India. Jhabvala and Forester illustrate the relationship between the East and West in India affected by the predominance of the British Raj. Furthermore the characters correspond: Olivia Rivers fits to Adela Quested, the Nawab fits to Dr. Aziz. THE LONDON TIMES has reported: "This is a book of cool, controlled brilliance. It is a jewel to be treasured." Heat and Dust is a story of an Englishwoman married to prominent civil servant Douglas, Frustrated by social constraints, her friendship with an Indian prince leads to destroy her