https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.099
Seeing Beyond the Visible: Visuality, Power and Knowledge in Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye
PAYEL GHOSH
Research Scholar
Department of English
Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, West Bengal
Email: payel.ku1995@gamil.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9021-9967
Abstract: Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye (2026) explores memory, perception, science, and different ways of understanding reality. The novel asks whether things that cannot be explained by standard scientific methods should be seen as unreal. While most discussions focus on themes like reincarnation, ecology, rationality, and knowledge, this paper looks at how seeing and perception work in the novel. It considers how seeing is linked to how knowledge is created and accepted. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s ideas about power and knowledge, examination, and regimes of truth, the paper argues that Ghost-Eye shows seeing as a way of interpreting and giving meaning to reality, not just discovering it. Varsha’s experiences are examined, classified, and recorded by different institutions. At the same time, her abilities in remote viewing, bodily memory, and sensory perception expand the limits of what is usually accepted as knowledge. The novel’s use of photographs and digital images also suggests that seeing something does not always mean understanding or knowing the truth about it. The paper concludes that the ‘ghost-eye’ is a metaphor for ways of perceiving and knowing that go beyond what is usually seen or explained by science.
Keywords: Ghost-Eye, Visuality, Power/Knowledge, Regimes of Truth, Perception
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