In this thesis I argue that the representation of mining in In the Skin of a Lion, The English Patient, and Anil’s Ghost disrupts the representation of colonialism and its aftermath as a linear history of progress; both in the context of each specific text, in the larger context of twentieth century colonial resource extraction.
As I develop my argument I demonstrate how mining is used figuratively in each novel to challenge how colonial history is made and how it persists in former and current colonies.