Saleha Ilhaam
Exoticism has been an exciting field of study for national
literature scholars. The prefixExo, in a general sense, includes all that lies
outside the totality of an individual’squotidian events, everything that is not
included in the usual "Mental Tonality." For the West, the
antediluvian exotic Eastern world or the Orient has always been characterized
by pleasure-seeking, temporal and material interest. At the same time, home is
considered as the manifestation of rationality. The picture of the West in the
mind ofthe East isalso similar. Mulk Raj
Anand’s Bildungsroman, Across the Black
Waters, is an
extended work of fiction that gives an intriguingly different view of the Great
War in twentieth-century Anglophone Indian Literature. The novel, in essence, is
only episodically concerned with the scenery of the battlefield, which are at
most times restricted to the bounds of the narrative line.Lalu’s pioneering
venture across the ocean from his traditional caste-governed village is a way
to perceivethe conflicts of culture and various origins of exploitation. By
reversing the conventional use of the word exotic, this paper aims to study the
undepicted experiences of Lalu, which leads him to an Eastern journey of
political self-education and self-discovery in the exotic West.
Exoticism,
East, West, war, exploitation, self-discovery
VOL.13, ISSUE No.3, September 2021