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영어

This paper examines Amitav Ghosh’s debut novel, The Circle of Reason, as an early site of engagement with the themes and spatial imaginaries central to Indian Ocean studies. Although the novel contains only brief depictions of the Indian Ocean itself, the maritime world nonetheless operates as a significant spatial backdrop and thematic wellspring. Scholars of Indian Ocean studies have emphasized its long history as a diasporic, cosmopolitan network existing beyond the firm control of centralized states, sustaining a degree of autonomy until it was eroded by colonial interventions and the postcolonial drive toward strong national identities. Traces of this older, transnational Indian Ocean world can be discerned in The Circle of Reason and in Ghosh’s later fictions and nonfiction works. This paper argues that Ghosh’s first novel already registers, in both form and theme, the enduring influence of the Indian Ocean’s historical and cultural networks.