Please submit your concern

Explanation:

The passage has established a relationship about mainstream English-language fiction and Indian Ocean novels. We have to find an option which does not weaken this relationship.

Option (a): This strengthens the idea given in para 4: "For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York."

Hence, option (a) is the right answer.

Option (b) states that Indian Ocean Novels were influenced by western imagination of its culture. This is not true as stated in para 4: "For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English". This option weakens the relationship given in the passage and hence is not the correct choice.

Option (c) states that Indian Ocean Novels were driven by postcolonial nostalgia i.e., they were inward looking. This is not true as stated in para 4: " It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world.". This option weakens the relationship given in the passage and hence is not the correct choice.

Option (d): Para 4 clearly states: "Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York". This option weakens this detail about English literature and hence is not the correct choice.

Hence, option (a).