Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities
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Pertanika · Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities

Official journal of Universiti Putra Malaysia for scholarly work across the social sciences, humanities and related interdisciplinary fields.

e-ISSN 2231-8534 ISSN 0128-7702
Research article

Shadow Projection in Adiga’s The White Tiger and Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day

Roghayeh Farsi

KeywordsAdiga, Ishiguro, Jung, postcolonial, servitude, shadow projection
Article content

Abstract

This study compares shadow projection in two postcolonial novels: Adiga’s The white tiger (2008) and Ishiguro’s The remains of the day (1989). It takes these autobiographies as narratives of shadow and investigates how each protagonist projects his shadow in his narrative of servitude. The study draws on Carl Jung’s view of shadow and shadow projection and holds an analytic and comparative methodology. The analysis focuses on the influential forces that shape each protagonist’s shadow, while the comparison reveals psychosocial differences between them. The study tracks a line of psychological continuation between the two novels and concludes with psychological similarities that link the protagonists cross-culturally. Finally, it is concluded the detection of shadow projection is beneficial to character analysis, but it falls short at addressing the rhetoric- linguistic aspects of each novel.