Southampton Solent University FACULTY OF THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND SOCIETY

BA (Hons) Writing Contemporary Fiction Tristan Simon Keeble Escaping the Eurocentric Gaze in Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things (1997)
May 2012

This Dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Writing Contemporary Fiction at Southampton Solent University.

Supervisor:

Dr Devon Campbell-Hall May 2012

Date of presentation:

Tristan Keeble

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor Dr Devon-Campbell Hall for her unflagging assistance and direction. I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the staff of the Faculty of Creative Industries and Society at Southampton Solent University, in particular Dr Tom Masters and Sandra Cain for their un-wielding support and tuition.

Tristan Keeble

Introduction

Arundhati Roys novel The God of Small Things (1997) explores an individuals ability
(or lack of ability) to re-inscribe and thus de-legitimize power. Roy states that she was interested in constructing new ways of seeing, or more exactly new ways of reinterpreting and deconstructing power using the novel form. So why then is The God of Small Things is widely regarded as a postcolonial novel despite not addressing resistance to colonialism at the point of first contact and the narrative written in the more modern setting of twentieth century Kerala? The answer is in its connection to the new directions in a postcolonial critique that foregoes the mere reinscribing original source texts by considering those lost voices against the single history of colonialism. Roy wants to change Eurocentrist perceptions of Global industrialisation as well as to highlight the suffering created by the ideologies inherent in globalisation. In The God of Small Things, Roy deals with the binary paradox which states that the United States and Europe is pure and rational whilst the external and orientalised world is irrational and barbaric and thus incapable of managing its own affairs. She also addresses the binary distinctions of modern versus backward specifically the effects of neo- capitalist principles of economic growth and development on supposedly less developed peoples. Roys multi-timeline narrative is predominantly focused on the lives of a set of bizygotic twins. Initially we experience the politics and power structures of an external, adult world through the pre-politicized eyes of youth and then again through their more experience adult eyes. Because the novel is located in India, there is a certain propensity to view it through the frame of a national matrix [Boehmer (2010, 170-81)], however, the real subject matter is more universal, exploring the external influences of power on all aspects of cultural separation after colonialism. The depiction of loss in Roys novel is

Tristan Keeble

both the loss of connection to the natural world and the loss of (as a result of the ideological growth of globalisation) the fundamental connections that solidify rational human interaction and social agency for all members of society at a global, national and local level. The intial hypothesis of this paper is that the search for a truly cosmopolitan reality, offering sufficient agency to all those involved in the globalised social sphere, remains constrained by the ideological battle at the root of both state-formation and universalist ideologies. Those at the sharp- end of globalization are therefore co-opted into a state-sanctioned competition of values that inevitably results in further degradation of their material conditions. Roy reveals the localized effects of this competition of values, simultaneously elevating the status and perspective of those unseen by proglobalisation eyes. This paper will investigate the validity of Roys perceptions of power over the powerless under three main headings: The God of Small Things as a postcolonial artefact, the significance of objects in Roys fiction; and finally, Roys novel as a dissident narrative. Each chapter will be covered through analysis of specific themes related to their proposed headings.

Tristan Keeble

Chapter 1: The God of Small Things as a postcolonial artefact

The primary focus of this chapter is to identify the postcolonial agenda in Roys text. As mentioned in the introduction The God of Small Things is a novel that deals with the effects of globalisation on the individual. In strictly postcolonial protocol terms, Roys novel seeks to map and deconstruct the post-imperialist mindset that creates the binarisms and ideologies that supports and maintains the process of globalization. Such ideologies are based on distinctly Western notions of modernity, development and social consciousness. In that respect, Roys novel is postcolonial in the sense that her foregrounding of alternative perspectives interrogates contemporary Western thinking and ideology and leads to questioning the ethical ramifications of such thinking and ideology to non-Western and colonized subjects. These attributes in Roys novel coincide with Bill Ashcrofts definition of the postcolonial, quoted by Pal Ahluwahlia in Relocating Postcolonialism (2000): Postcolonial does not mean after colonialism It begins when the colonizers arrive and doesnt finish when they go home. In that sense, postcolonial analysis examines the full range of responses to colonialism All of these may exist in a single society, so the term postcolonial society does not mean an historical left-over of colonialism, but a society continuously responding in all its myriad ways to the experience of colonial contact (Ashcroft 1997) [(2002, 196)]. In terms of Bill Ashcrofts definition, Roy use of multi-timeframes, demonstrates the chain of effects of both: the diminution of the British Empire and the expansion of American capitalist imperialism. As stated by Julie Mullaney in her essay Globalizing dissent? Arundhati Roy, Local and Postcolonial Feminism in the Transnational Economy (2006), Roys novel is seen as an intervention against the ideologies mentioned earlier. By viewing The God of Small Things as an intervention, the

Tristan Keeble

assumption is that Roy is interrogating the founding principles that drive the contemporary form of globalization and revealing them as ethically reprehensible when viewed through the everyday lives of those affected. To best identify the postcolonial agenda in The God of Small Things this chapter will investigate the origins of Eurocentric thought by unpicking Franz Fanons concept of the colonized mind and then analysing specific postcolonial tropes within the novel. The colonized Mind By viewing Eurocentrism through the lense of colonialism and neo-capitalist globalization, we can gain insights into Roys critique of power and dominance. To establish the topes of Western thought, the following quote from Saids Culture and Imperialism (1993) provides an initial impression of what constitutes a characteristically Western mindset: Cultural experience or indeed every cultural form is radically, quintessentially hybrid, and if it had been the practice in the West since Immanuel Kant to isolate cultural and aesthetic realms from the worldly domain, it is now time to rejoin them. This is by no means a simple matter, since I believe it has been the essence of experience in the West at least since the late eighteenth century not only to acquire distant domination and reinforce hegemony, but also to divide the realms of culture and experience into apparently separate spheres. [Said (1993, 67-68)] Said states that after colonisation it was also common practice to divide the realms of culture and experience into apparently separate spheres, thereby also destroying cultural connections at a local level. What Said means when he states that cultural and aesthetic realms have been separated from the worldly domain is that by separating the link between culture and the world in which it is produced, the cultural aesthetic is devalued as a source of localised human knowledge and cultural connection. Said is directing his critique towards a formative aspect of Western thinking, namely

Tristan Keeble

treating cultural and the aesthetic realities as being arbitrary or merely superficial to the notion of existence. Why this philosophy might be considered a distinctly Western mindset is evident from the following quote from P.T. Raju in his essay Existence: An Epistemological Study (1951): In Hegels philosophy, Being, Reality and Existence do not mean the same. But in Indian philosophy, the three mean the same. Sat and Satta mean all three [(1951, pp. 265-277)]. Whilst Rajus analysis of this difference from Hegelian philosophy is a distinctly secular and nationalised interpretation of Indian thought but the conclusion is universal: The separation of Being, Reality and Existence in Western thought results in the separation of the aesthetic realms into a simulated commodity rather than as an intrinsic part of the symbolic life of a living cultural order and has resulted in what Guy Debord described as the accumulation of spectacles on a global scale. Debord elaborates as follows: The images detached from every aspect of life merged into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudoworld that can only be looked at. .. The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as society itself, as a part of society, it is the focal point of all vision and all consciousness The spectacle is not a collection of image; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images [(2009, 24)]. What Debord is describing is the destruction of localised cultural connections and their replacement with a supposedly universal aesthetic ideal, with no reference to the local. As a result of this disconnection, Debord suggests that the spectacle represents itself simultaneously as society itself and becomes the focal point of all vision and all consciousness. The global populace is symptomatically connected by image alone, which then becomes the primary focus of all social relations. This supercession of a supposedly universal life into its representation as collective art (referencing Walter Benjamin) has meant that the Eurocentric aesthetic ideals, that in turn construct the dominant global images have caused greater conflicts within a cultural context. Why? In

Tristan Keeble

a postcolonial context, the Western aesthetic has become the presumed focal point for a colonised conscious, which has resulted in the legitimising of western life as an ideal and conversely for the colonised subject, a realisation that this ideal excludes them. Roy reveals the effects of this process of separation of life and image and replacement with a Western frame, throughout her novel. An example in the text is in the family visit to the Abhilash Talkies, written through the frame of the twins Estha and Rahels combined conscious. The scene takes place after Estha has been sexually exploited by the Orangedrink Lemondrink man: And there was Captain von Clapp-Trap [referring to the character Chacko], Christopher Plummer. Arrogant. Hardhearted. With a mouth like a slit. And a steelshrill police whistle. A captain with seven children, like a packet of peppermints. He pretended not to love them but he did. He loved them. He loved her (Julie Andrews), she loved him, they loved the children, the children loved them, and their beds were soft with Ei. Der. Downs The clean white children, even the big ones, were scared of the thunder. To comfort them, Julie Andrews put them all in her clean bed, and sang them a clean song about a few of her favourite things And then, in the minds of certain two-egg twin members of the audience in Abhilash Talkies, some questions arose that needed answers Oh Captain von Trapp, Captain von Trapp, could you love the little fellow with the orange in the smelly auditorium? Hes just held the Orangedrink Lemondrink man's soo-soo in his hand, but could you love him still? And his twin sister? Tilting upwards with her fountain in a Love-inTokyo? Could you love her too? Captain von Trapp had some questions of his own. (a) Are they clean white children? No. (But sophie Mol is.) (b) Do they blow spit-bubbles? Yes. (But Sophie Mol doesnt.) (c) Do they shiver their legs? Like clerks? Yes. (But Sophie Mol doesnt.) (d) Have they, either or both, ever strangers soo-soos? NNyes. (But Sophie mol hasnt.) Then Im sorry, Captain von Clapp Trapp said: Its out of the question. I cannot love them. I cannot be their Baba.

Tristan Keeble

(p.105-107) Viewed through Estha and Rahels narrative frame, what becomes clear is that the social compact that connects the family is ruptured because, in the moment of his crisis, Esthas self-comparison with an idealistic Westernised life presented in The Sound of Music, fractures his sense of personal agency within his family. This event amplifies the distance created between him and his would-be protector Chacko, who appears reverential to the Western lifestyle presented. In terms of an anti-capitalist critique, Roy is therefore pointing out how the idealistic imagery used to expand and promote the West is socially reductive because of its spectacularly-attractive untruths as well as its unapologetic ethnocentrism. Roy is therefore ensuring that the reader reflects on the untruths that are contained within the attractive imagery presented within such a globalised aesthetic. An interesting point regarding Debord and Benjamin critique of Western thought above is to note how Western poststructuralist theory contradicts new directions in postcolonial theory. Benita Parry explains why in her essay Directions and Dead Ends in Postcolonial Studies (2006): Said, who at the time Orientalism appeared (1978) was identified as Foucauldian, has since dissociated himself from theoretical cults where the pull and primacy of historical conditions is relegated (Said 1993, pp.366-7). Procedures fitting this description, and elsewhere as facile textualist thought that contrives to block the appeal to any kind of real world knowledge and experience (Norris 1993, p.128), are abundantly manifest in those modes of postcolonial criticism where the politics of the symbolic order displaces the theory and practice of politics. [(2002, 66-67)]. Parry is therefore implying that the theoretical critique used by Eurocentric poststructuralists detracts from the political cause at the root of postcolonial theory. Parrys sentiments are corroborated by Homi. K Bhaba: Is the language of theory merely another power ploy of the culturally privileged Western elite to produce a discourse of the Other

Tristan Keeble

that reinforces its own power-knowledge equation? [(1994, 30-31)]. This conflict of theory also provides an interesting insight into Arundhati Roys novel as there numerous instances within the text that appears to deliberately invite Western theoretical criticism. From a purely academic persepective, it is possible that she wrote her novel specifically for a Western readership with a deliberate political intervention in mind? This issue will be further discussed later on in relation to epistemic violence. History Turning now to an analysis of specific postcolonial tropes in Roys novel, including the depiction of history as power and the notion of epistemic violence. Both of these tropes are intrinsic aspects of her novel and are dealt with throughout the text. As far as her use of history as a political force in the lives of her characters goes, there is a great deal of postcolonial literature in which the notion of history as part of the colonial story is at the heart of a desire to re-inscribe supposedly concrete truths concerning colonialism. Roy even quotes John Bergers statement: never again will a story be told as if it is the only one [Roy (1997)] at the beginning of her novel. The sentiment behind this statement is her desire to contest the practice of appropriating history as a source of validating social dominance. Edward Said explains why the novel is such an important tool in contesting the legitimacy of inscribed truths constructed by the historical grand narrative: The appropriation of history, the historicisation of the past, the narrativisation of society, all of which give the novel its force, include the accumulation and differentiation of social space, space to be used for social purposes [(1993, 93)]. For Said, the novel in its ideal form provides a means to contest certain engrained ideologies of power by appropriating historical information, contextualising it and placing it within a social frame. Roy, however has taken a more postmodern interpretation of the novel form to reveal the meta-textuality of history as a localised social construct. She is using the depiction of her characters and their experience of history as the key focal point for her readers. For example: As Chacko teaches both

Tristan Keeble

10

Estha and Rahel about their own history, the reader experiences a history that is a darkened yet also farcical interpretation of their situation: The History House. [Chacko:] With cool stone floors and dim walls and billowing shipshape windows. And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves. Marry our conquerors, is more like it, Ammu said drily, referring to Margaret Kochamma. Chacko ignored her. He made the twins look up Despise. It said: to look down upon; to view with contempt; to scorn or disdain. Chacko said that it was the context of the war that he was talking about the War of Dreams Despise meant all of those things. Were prisoners of War, Chacko said. When he was in this sort of mood, Chacko used his Reading Aloud voice. His room had a church feeling. He didnt care whether anyone was listening to him or not. Ammu called them his Oxford Moods While other children of their age learned other things, Estha and Rahel learned how history negotiates its terms and collects its dues from those who break its laws. They heard its sickening thud. They smelled its smell and never forgot it. Historys smell. Like old roses on a breeze. It would lurk for ever in ordinary things. In coat hangers. Tomatoes. In the tar on the roads. In certain colours. In the plates at a restaurant. In the absence of words. And the emptiness in eyes. (p.53-55) In the above extract from The God of Small Things Roy deconstructs the darkness of history by placing it in the frame of a family relationship. Chacko is an Oxford scholar and as a result has learned to respect the power engrained in the notion of historical fact. By translating the dark experience of history as a lost war into the fragile, pre-political minds of Estha and Rahel they experience history through their visceral imagination,

Tristan Keeble

11

formed not reference to historical events but to the world around them. History as an experience therefore darkens their interpretation of their surroundings and becomes the overriding signifier for their experience of everyday objects. Roys use of the meta-textuality of history has a definite resonance with postcolonial theory, specifically in the ethics of re-invigorating old references to loss and degradation. She implies that the re-invigoration of history would only result in what Benita Parry describes as post-mortem theory [(2002, 86)]. It is also useful to note that Roys critique of the psychology of history has a fundamental impact it has on how we interpret our surroundings. (This concept this will be discussed below in chapter 2). Epistemic violence A further postcolonial trope in Roys novel is the notion of epistemic violence. It is no secret that during the colonial period scientific objectivism and the desire for classification was responsible for a great deal of racial dehumanisation as Western scholarly institutions sought to map human history to claim to scholarly esteem. In terms of postcolonial fiction, this trope of the colonial bone collector has certainly offered a great deal of currency in a number of other novels. Roy, however, takes a more politicised approach with regards to the effects of colonial epistemology, evident within the following extract from the novel: Pappachi had been an Imperial Entomologist at the Pusa Institute. After Independence, when the British left, his designation was changed from Imperial Entomologist to Joint Director, Entomology. The year he retired he had risen to the rank equivalent to director. His lifes greatest setback was not having had the moth that he had discovered named after him In the years to come, even though he had been ill-humoured long before he discovered the moth, Pappachis Moth was held responsible for his black moods and sudden bouts of temper. Its pernicious ghost grey, furry and with unusually dense dorsal tufts haunted every house that he ever lived in. It tormented him and his children. (p.49)

Tristan Keeble

12

Here, Roy is showing how Western scholarly institutions have created their own form of epistemic violence by appropriating what Bhaba earlier referred to as the power knowledge equation. Pappachis moth is the allegorical representation of expropriated knowledge, whereby the colonial institution has denied him recognition for his own discoveries and thus the primacy of his own episteme as advanced knowledge. Enrique Galvan-Alvarez explains further: Epistemic violence, that is, violence exerted against or through knowledge, is probably one of the key elements in any process of domination. It is not only through the construction of exploitative economic links or the control of the politico-military apparatuses that domination is accomplished, but also and, I would argue, most importantly through the construction of epistemic frameworks that legitimise and enshrine those practices of domination [(2010, 1126)]. Pappachis Moth thereby reinforces the idea that Western institutions legitimized their authority through retaining control over claims to knowledge. With reference to the principles of globalization mentioned in the introduction, this epistemological control is also used to legitimize the Eurocentric state as superior in civility and modernity, thereby deeming the non-Eurocentric World as, in the words of Alex Tickell, the: Belated Enlightenment subject [(2006)]. Aijaz Ahmad demonstrates, in his text In Theory (1992), that there are several problems in the categorization of the so-called modern and pre-modern civilization that have occurred as a result of Western classifications: This classification leaves the so-called Third World in limbo; if only the First World is capitalist and the Second World socialist, how does one understand the Third World? Is it pre-capitalist? Transitional? Transitional between what and what? But then there is also the issue of the location of particular countries within the various worlds. [(1992, 100)] Therefore the supposed values that affirm the notion of modernity are constructed through a Westernised institutional frame but considered to be the definitive and

Tristan Keeble

13

universally aspirant values in the global materiality of life. According to Ahmad this designation of being neither modern nor un-modern is, for those who are not subjects of the modernized Eurocentric life, a state of transience - of forever being in transition because of the greater power structures that maintain Western supremacy and domination. Pappachis moth therefore becomes a powerful anthropomorphised entity throughout the novel Roys pernicious ghost (p.49) that creates fear in Rahel and causes Pappachis devastating anger.

Tristan Keeble

14

Chapter 2: The significance of objects in Roys fiction

Modern Western neo-capitalism seeks, in its most basic form, to turn the world into a homogenous cosmopolitan, consumer-based society through ever greater technological developments in production. As an example of a strange object relationship that has occurred as a result of tis quest for consumer modernity is the story of Dr Verghese Kurien, the man who transformed India into the worlds largest producer of milk - his operation flood. Kurien stated on his ninetieth birthday that he hated the very thing he was celebrated for producing: I dont drink milk, I dont like it [(Accessed: March 12th 2012)]. For Kurien it is safe to say his milk empire was built on an emancipatory vision for India - from the industrial supremacy of the West - by converting a surplus Indian product into and object of Indian national trade. This surplus product, therefore, provides Industrial agency for the collective nation of India across the globe, thereby contesting the Western notion that India is materially incapable of running its own affairs. It is no surprise, therefore, that a character called Dr Verghese Verghese appears in Roys novel as a non-existent entity. Roys anti-capitalist, anti-nationalist and antiindustrialist sentiment is mirrored in her treating of Dr Verghese not as a contributor to emancipation but as an idolised and soothing collaborator with the West in spreading industrial globalisation. Her anarchic sentiment is fuelled by such events as the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal - an event that seemingly appears in the life of Roys character Ammu the subaltern mother, who dies the same death as many of the Bhopal victims. Roys commentary on Kuriens contribution to a form of conditional emancipation distinctly mirrors Franz Fanons words in The Wretched of Earth that: The apotheosis of independence is transformed into the curse of independence, and the colonial power

Tristan Keeble

15

through its immense resources of coercion condemns the young nation to regression [(1963, 78-79)]. In terms of Roys characters, this state of industrial retrogression is identical to Pappachis moth in that the Western industrial complex asserts the same divisions through classification as modern and developing. Pappachis moth is therefore also symbolic of the damage caused by such patriarchal politics, as all other characters become subject to ideological competition and are enlisted into an immense effort [Fanon(1963, 78-79)] to compete with the West. This immense effort, created by that pernicious ghost, results in a great fracture in social identities and becomes the overriding societal objective resulting in the immense poverty for the toiling work force. Turning now to the relationship between the subject and object in Roys novel with a view to interpreting and revealing those engrained ideologies that legitimise power over the powerless in a state-sanctioned competition of values. Analysis will cover the topics of: The political object, temporal object and feminine object. The objective here is to identify a means of recognising the subaltern and to discuss how his/her emancipation is undone by Western politics and the Western institutions as much as his/her caste designation. In The God of Small Things Roy also demonstrates how the object/subject divide in the global consciousness is not as clear cut as, say, the difference between animate and inanimate. The question is therefore: can these objects speak for her characters? And if so, what would they say about the world in which they exist? A thorough analysis the object in Roys novel requires a number of functional definitions as a starting point: According to the Oxford English Dictionary for Students (2006) an object is defined as: A physical thing that can be seen or touched A person or thing to which an action or feeling is directed: he hated being the object of public attention A goal or purpose: the object of his exercise was to shock the audience. [(2006, 698)].

Tristan Keeble

16

If we consider therefore that objects are tangible entities onto which we can imprint our own cognitions or feelings it becomes clear that the characters in Roys fiction might have a presence and identity, merely as a result their own interaction with specific objects. In fact they are realised through a unique human trait in coming to know the self through objects - as revealed by Mikhali Csikszentmihalyi: Yet the impact of inanimate objects in this self-awareness process is much more important than one would infer from its neglect. Things also tell us about who we are, not in words, but by embodying our intentions. In our everyday traffic of existence, we can also learn about ourselves from objects, almost as much as from people. [(1981, 91)] Roys objects therefore become allegorical representations of emotions, cultural allegiances, mythical stories and signifiers of material-based capital. Throughout her novel, Roy then re-connects the symbolism ingrained in objects by showing what they mean to each of her characters and subsequently to society as a whole. In this way the objects simultaneously become a voice for her characters, as a means of expressing and deconstructing certain socially-ingrained ideologies. The political object What of the political nature imparted to objects in The God of Small Things? Most objects exist in some form of politicised context, however, it is also possible for ideological symbols to be translated into objects of collective political thought. A further quote from Mikhali Cziksentmihalyi demonstrates what constitutes a politicised object: All symbols of social integration however, can also act as signs of the opposite process, namely social differentiation and opposition. The cross is a concrete expression of the unity of all Christians, but it also underlines the separation between the latter and the followers of Islam or any other religion. The American flag commands the allegiance of U.S citizens, but it excludes other nationals from the community [(1981, 36)].

Tristan Keeble

17

The politicised symbol is therefore the object that unites its constituent members as the focal point of their political allegiance and consciousness, simultaneously becoming a method of excluding those not engaged in that brand of collective idealism or even nationalism. In terms of Roys critique of power, the flag is represented as the most reviled symbolic object because of its capacity to assert power over the powerless on a totalitarian scale. Roys portrayal of the symbolic violence of a flag is demonstrated when the Skyblue Plymouth motorcar is caught up in a communist march. Trapped inside the vehicle a flag, presumably bearing the hammer and sickle, is thrust into Baby Kochammas face and she is forced to recite communist slogans. As the most middle-class and Christian character of the novel, Baby Kochamma therefore reinforces her identity and political allegiance to Christianity against communism by inserting her rosary beads into her blouse. Her reaction is testament to how much the communists represent a significant threat to her position - as Roy states in the novel: In Kerala the Syrian Christians were, by and large, the wealthy, estate owning (pickle-factory-running) feudal lords, for whom communism represented a fate worse than death (p.66). Baby Kochamma is, therefore, is also reaffirming her own connection to traditional values that maintain her status within the bourgeoisie, through her symbolic act. This is the point in the novel where Rahel sees the subaltern untouchable Velutha has joined the crowd of communist demonstrators. He is evidently trying to share allegiances between his Syrian Christian employers (the Kochammas) and the communist party. In placing Velutha amongst the communist marchers, Roy is showing how the caste system prevents social mobility, as Velutha is so obviously out of place anywhere other than in his employment with the Kochammas. For Velutha, the search for political agency is a desperate one and indicative of his desire to elevate himself from the oppressions of his lower caste. Roy also mentions that his emancipation by the Syrian Christians meant that they paid the price by losing their identity within the Hindu dominant caste system. For Velutha the flag represents an instrument, whether safe or not, for obtaining social capital, or as Bourdieu puts it in notion of capital: Any resource

Tristan Keeble

18

effective in a given social arena that enables one to appropriate the specific profits arising out of participation and contest in it [Wacquant (2008, 268)]. So, in essence, the flag is indicative of both Veluthas low social status as well as his failure to make external allegiances but also represents his role as a political instrument. For Bourdieu there is, however, always the pre-supposition that social mobility is flexible and all social systems are penetrable. This viewpoint is revealed as distinctly Eurocentric as the subaltern Paravans are, however, annexed from any form of social agency as a result of the caste system. According to Gayatri Spivak: [The] new subaltern subject is unable to join or be represented in the new global order Subaltern came to mean persons and groups cut off from upward and, in a sense, outward social mobility [(39-55)]. So as objects they become the societal other upon whom is imprinted all of societys ills. Their physical state therefore exists as anterior to the existence of society, they are therefore subalterns in a subservient and capital-less state. This is why they are easily appropriated for political means other than their own emancipation by political groups such as the communists and nationalists. The temporal object Moving on to the significance temporal object in The God of Small Things: Rahels watch always reads ten-to-two to demonstrate how the notion of linear-time and modernity have helped to constructed the fiction of the backward postcolonial subject or what Alex Tickell has called: The belated Enlightenment subject [(2006, 66)]. In so doing, Roy is critiquing the notion of modernity, especially the major thrust behind globalization is the attempt to bring the supposedly backward Third World up to date. Roy similarly presents symbols of Western modernity as decaying artifacts of a western presence. The Skyblue Plymouth, a symbol of industrial supremacy, is left to sink into the ground outside the house. Both Rahels watch and the Skyblue Plymouth become postcolonial objects of thought and resistance because their meaning is altered to reveal the perspective of the external, non-Eurocentric subject.

Tristan Keeble

19

Rahels watch also represents the kind of temporal inertia mentioned earlier, where time is spent in continual transition between First and Third World. Here, Said offers further insight into the notion of the belated non-Eurocentric subject - that it only represents a material condition in the eyes of the West: The Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent reflect each other [(2003, 5)]. The Orientalised Third World exists therefore as a remote object of knowledge for the West in the global world view. Through this limited World perspective, the subaltern becomes invisible to the Western institution for reasons such as those provided by Gayatri Spivak below: The issue is the difference between dieting and starving, when the dieters episteme is produced by a system that produces the starvers starvation... and [also] punishing those for not having followed patenting laws in their subaltern past and thus having put up illegal trade barriers [(2008, 232)]. Spivak is referring to how the subaltern is portrayed by local systems of government and scholarly research. A patriarchal system that continues to engage in metaphorical dieting in order to compete with the West is also the system that keeps the subaltern hungry and subservient. Veluthas troubled allegiances are such that he is considered to have erected an illegal trade barrier by associating with the Syrian Christian system and thus being non-complicit with the Hindu caste controls. In terms of globalization, the institutional system that, therefore, portrays his material condition to the outside world is the same institution that denies him any freedom. Spivak also suggests that the subalterns are cut off from the lines that produced the colonial mindset [(2008, 232)]. They are therefore not even on the periphery of colonial knowledge. They are therefore denied any form of political agency either within or outside of India. This disconnect, however, is considered by Spivak to actually offer a significant benefit to the re-invigoration of the pre-colonial perspective a - point will be discussed later in this chapter.

Tristan Keeble

20

The female object As far as the feminine object in Roys fiction is concerned: She seeks to bring the female frame centre stage, but also to reveal the degrading effect of female objectification at a localized level. There is another aspect of the feminine object that is particularly relevant in the postcolonial context, as Dorit Naaman elaborates: Postcolonial discourse often compares patriarchy with colonial power, the imperial gaze with the male objectifying gaze. The colonized nation is thus compared to a woman, not quite an independent subject; the bearer, not maker of her own meaning. [(2000, 333-342)] Naaman is highlighting the difficulty of constructing the feminine object when it is already subsumed by patriarchal objectification. Naamans view is mirrored by that of Elleke Boehmers words: The majority of postcolonial writers are read with reference to a national matrix [(2011, pp.170-81)], however, the more pertinent point is that the female subject - as much as the postcolonial state - is said to be incapable of being the maker of her own meaning. In The God of Small Things, Roy likewise shows the difficulty for a female subject to become the possessor of her own will and maker of her own meaning when she is being objectified: Mammachi is the object of Pappachis thoughts and feelings. She is the outlet for his grief and alcoholism and his material-based capital to him when he demands that she sleep with the tea plantation owner to save Pappachis job. When Chackos overturns Pappachis imprinted objectification of Mammachi, Pappachi vents his frustrationon on the next lowest and more inanimate object the chair. Furthermore in Mammachis objectified state her only object of resistance is a vase which she uses to beat-back Pappachis aggression, thereby ddestroying her own domestic sphere.

Tristan Keeble

21

Roys critique of the female object goes one step further, specifically in reference to notion of female ownership - or lack thereof. Once Mammachis cottage industry becomes Paradise Pickles, it mirrors Vergheses milk empire or Project Flood an industry that has been ideologically appropriated for a competition with Western supremacy by a patriarchal regime. Mammachis pickle business therefore only acquires its commercial identity as a result of being branded by the male characters. This commercial appropriation of both value and meaning is legitimized by Mammachis status as non locus standi (or without sufficient claim to the business because of her gender). As a result of this male appropriation, the business is subsequently sold for credit. Mammachis predicament therefore is indicative of Spivaks notion of creditbaiting [()] whereby ownership is squeezed from the hands of localized labour in exchange for the ideologically founded acquisition of global capital. Jean Baudrillard explains why this process of Westernised credit accumulation is so socially reductive: In sum, credit pretends to promote a civilisation of modern consumers at last freed from the constraints of property, but in reality it institutes a whole system integration which combines social mythology with brutal economic pressure. [(1996, 162)] The key element here is that the women of Kerala are excluded from even entering into the credit-based economy, thereby having no ability to construct their own objects of resistance outside of an ideological competition with the West. Mammachis situation demonstrates that ownership is very much a source of agency - her localized business is an object of female presence and position as well as a means of creating meaning through social interaction, without which Mammachi becomes objectified capital for the means of economic exploitation and thus subject to both social mythology and brutal economic pressure. Mammachis action of destroying her vase is also indicative of Jean Baudrillards concept that: By means of credit... domesticity is directly colonized [(1996, 162)].

Tristan Keeble

22

Antonia Navaro-Tejero expands on this point by relating Roys female characters to the lower caste Dalits:

Roy equates Dalits and womens labour to capital in the sense that they help in the increase of capital, either by getting lower wages, by serving as a political instrument, and by being used for sexual favours [(2006, 104)]. Navarro-Tejeros point highlights the difficulty for both women and the untouchable subalterns to accumulate personal capital outside the patriarchal social system. However, Gayatri Spivak presents the case for the subalterns perhaps being a valuable source of knowledge that might provide some form of a solution to the dilemma of fractured global identities: First, the relatively homogenous dominant Hindu culture at the village level keeps the ST [subaltern] materially isolated through prejudice. Second, as a result of this material isolation, womens independence among the STs, in their daily in-house behaviour (ontic dom) has remained intact. It has not been infected by the tradition of womens oppression within the general culture. [(2008, 229-240)] However, a further interesting question is posed by both Roy and Spivak: Is there any reason they say, to educate the subaltern into a modernised society considering they might offer the greatest opportunity to invigorate a pre-colonial, pre-nationalised and pre-globalised mindset? Spivak also suggests that the subaltern social system is worth learning from as it has not been affected by the tradition of womens oppression within the general culture. In Roys novel, the Paravan characters are effeminized to represent their connection to being objectified individuals Veluthas painted fingernails for example. Roys reverence for the subaltern perspective is represented both through Veluthas repairing of the boat as well as his glass eye. Roy resurrects the cultural

Tristan Keeble

23

presence of lower caste Paravans by elevating their abilities to fashion the world of their surroundings into objects of emancipation. Velutha is revealed as the character of the title The God of Small Things with his Lucky leaf that makes the monsoons come on time (p.70). He is also shown as having mythical significance in the lives of both Estha and Rahel as he is depicted in terms of Westernised Christian ideals, such as the Christ like reference to his carpentry as well as the Germanic reference to his leaf as in the story of Siegfried. His father Vellya Paapen is treated with similar mythological symbolism - see his Greco-Roman reference to Tiresius the blind seer from the story of Oedipus. Roys elevating of the non-metropolitan subalterns through their ability to fashion the world around them is indicative of, according to Devon Campbell Hall: [Roys] privileging of skilled labour, thereby helping to undermine the unquestioned acceptance in the West of the need for dehumanizing globalised production methods [(2006, 52)]. Roy is clearly enamoured with the subalterns artisanal abilities and seeks to communicate the importance of their pre-colonial society to the anti-globalisation movement within Eurocentric circles by depicting the subalterns through the imagery of Western mythology. It should be noted the subalterns are also materially disconnected from the West and therefore free from that colonized gaze, as mentioned in chapter 1.

Tristan Keeble

24

Chapter 3: Arundhati Roys novel as a dissident narrative

Edward Said stated that the novel in its contemporary form provides an effective means of, not only disseminating alternative perspectives but providing and affective means of interrogating the lived social space of a society. This chapter discusses Arundhati Roys novel as an intentionally political intervention through analysis of resistance to power both within and outside her text. The initial hypothesis for this chapter is that Roys narrative functions to appropriate language so as to make it accessible to the polyglocy of non-Eurocentric subjects. Through her imagery she reveals how the middle classes are incapable of rationalising effective solutions to support the subalterns of society as they are disconnected from the plight of the subaltern through their reliance on media constructed images. Finally, the external reception Roys received is assessed in order to present a series of revealing insights into her agenda. So what then is intrinsically anarchic within the text itself?. Her focus on the contemporary issues reveals the impact on the various residents of Kerala of a foreign education, religious subjectivity, Americanised media, the apparent freedoms offered by Communism as well as a growing dissonance with the natural world after the plague of industry. Roys dissident language In narrative style terms, Roys use of language is deliberate in the sense that she deconstructs the canonised form of colonial English. In this regard, her stylised language reflects a form of post-imperial resistance mentioned in both; the earlier quote from Bill Ashcroft and in Stan Smiths essay Darkening English: Post-imperial Contestations in the Language of Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott [(1994, pp. 39-55)] where he states:

Tristan Keeble

25

Though light on the tongue, this language is darkened by a history of oppression. It enshrines in its very verbal structures the struggle of opposing allegiancesIt has recorded, too, the struggle to reappropriate, make over, that language into an instrument of liberation which puts the postcolonial writer back into the saddle of the high horse of English. [(1994, pp. 39-55)] In Smiths terms, Roys language is light on the tongue because of its playful anti-capitalist neologisms, language musing and chutnified [Tickell (2006, 60)] rhythmic prose. Her whimsical prose does, however, always have a darker and more politicised context when seen in relation to power structures within the novel. Examples from the text include: Coca-ColaFanta? IcecreamRosemilk? (p.109) Her hair Was the delicate colourov Gi-nnn-ger (leftleft, right) There was a girl Margaret Kochamma told her to Stoppit. So she Stoppited. (p.141). Roy also makes it clear that the language she re-appropriates is the orthodox English of a colonial Christian education, learned not as a creolized hybrid of English but via enforced indoctrination through repetition of a canonised lexicon. As an act of resistance, Roy deconstructs this learned English by continually repeating stereotypical colonial-isms. Her act of repetition is a form of semantic satiation, whereby words lose their specific meaning though being mulled-over and de-contextualised. Roy therefore shifts colonial English into a malleable form, accessible to the polyglocy of colonised cultural expression by deconstructing the signified untouchability of the language. In the words of Nien-Ming Chien: Roys anarchic writing repositions English from colonialist origins to nativist self expression [(2004, 158)]. The following example of Roys anarchic prose in her novel demonstrates her ability to re-

Tristan Keeble

26

appropriate language both as a deliberate act by her characters as well as a functioning narrative for her readers: Whenever she caught them speaking in Mayalam, she [Margaret Kochamma] levied a small fine which was deducted at source. From their pocket money. She made them write lines impositions she called them I will always speak in English, I will always speak in English. A hundred times each. When they were done, she scored them out with her red pen to make sure that the old lines were not recycled for new punishments. She had made them practice and English car song for the way back. They had to form words properly, and be particularly careful about their pronunciation. Prer Nun Sea ayshun. Rej-Oice in the Lo-Ord Or-Orlways And again I say rej-Oice, RejOice, RejOice, And again I say rej-Oice. (p.36) There is, however, a small caveate regarding Smiths earlier statement that: It has recorded, too, the struggle to re-appropriate, make over, that language into an instrument of liberation [(1994, pp. 39-55)]. As, in The God of Small Things, Roy struggles with and is ambivalent to - the use of English as an instrument of liberation for the postcolonial subject. As a result she has even tried to have her novel translated into Mayalayam, which had a mixed reception. She also reveals how cultural hegemony can be contained not only within a language but also within its teaching process. If English is, and always will be, the language of the coloniser then the use of English will continually re-affirm the global subjects complicity with a central Metropolitan, Eurocentric nucleus of power. According to Smith: The language of English is darkened by a corrupting political complicity, and the poet of a subject people cannot use it without being compromised and co-opted [(1994, pp. 39-55)]. By juxtaposing Smiths statement with Arundhati Roys statement that: the only thing worth Globalising is dissent [(Accessed: may 3rd 2012)] it becomes clear that her

Tristan Keeble

27

dissent is also focussed on the politics of artistic representation. As Roy states: When independent, thinking people (and here I do not include the corporate media) begin to rally under flags, when writers, painters, musicians, film blindly yoke their art to the service of the 'nation', it's time for all of us to sit up and worry [(Accessed: may 3rd 2012)]. This would suggest that her anarchic use of English is in fact in creating a universally dissident expression of English that remains free from the suppression of state control. In doing so she resists the kind of artistic complicity that Bourdieu mentions in his text Distinction: A social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1979), described by Loic Wacquant as: To appreciate a painting, a poem or a symphony pre-supposes mastery of the specialized symbolic code of which it is a materialization, which in turn requires possession of the proper kind of cultural capital. Mastery of this code can be acquired can be acquired by osmosis in ones milieu of origin or by explicit teaching [(2008, 270)]. Wacquants prcis of Bourdieus theory presents an interesting observation as, in the postcolonial context of Roys work, that proper kind of cultural capital is a result of enforced hegemony in India after colonialism. For Roy, the mastery of a specialised symbolic code is her capacity for interpreting and reinscribing the symbolic dominance of Western cultural hegemony through her re-appropriation and hybridization of the English language. In this respect, her milieu of origin can be situated as once complicit student of Anglophilia who is in turn now an acting postcolonial dissident. In terms of globalisation, Roys critique also extends to Americanised imperialism that seeks to convert those technologically connected to Western media into consumers of Western ideals. A major theme of The God of Small Things is the disparity between the external and the internal, between the local and the outside world. Within this metaphorical disjuncture she demonstrates the difficulty in combining the politics of the external nationalised and globalised world with the everyday experiences of those caught up in the politics of expanding associations. Within these associations - powerful

Tristan Keeble

28

ideological connections, mediated through universalised imagery - the local becomes complicit with a strange form of global, neither of which appear to fit with the other. As an example of Roys critique of technology that creates global universality, she focuses heavily on the effect of TV mediated images on the life of Baby Kochamma, evident within the following quote from the book: The sky was thick with TV. If you wore special glasses you could see them spinning through the sky among the bats and homing birds blondes, wars, famines, football, food shows, coups detat, hairstyles stiff with hairspray. Designer pectorals, Gliding towards Ayemenem like like Skydivers. Making patterns in the sky. Wheels. Windmills. Flowers blooming and unblooming. (P.188) She viewed ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide as direct threats to her furniture. (p.28) Here, Roys imagery doubly re-enforces the unreality of not just television but also the televised event as a source of valid information concerning the reality of the world beyond of the local. Whilst Baby Kochamma is complicit in this unreality of television she can only contextualise her experience of these images through her own surroundings - farcically relating the images of genocide to a direct attack on her own furniture. In this process the viewer experiences the need to take sides in a supposedly imaginary battle, or align themselves with a supposedly important ideal. Baby Kochammas fear for her furniture is therefore a metaphor for the blind materialism of the western middle-class consumer conscious. Baby Kochamma as a character represents that middle-class dissonance with the world outside of the media, a world where the subaltern remains oppressed and invisible. Roys use of imagery highlights Baudrillards concept of hyperreality whereby the simulated experience of the world through television is used to enlist and co-opt people into experiencing an individualised connection to world politics, nationalism and a collective conscious - contextualised through a localised reference of Baby Kochammas domestic frame:

Tristan Keeble

29

Events lose their identity and fade into hyperreality In this sense, while televisual information claims to provide immediate access to real events, in fact what it does is to inform public opinion which in turn affects the course of subsequent events, both real and informational. As consumers of mass media, we [the Western consumer] never experience the bare material event but only the informational coating that renders it sticky and unintelligible [Zurbrugg (1997, 126)] Baudrillards notion of hyperreality demonstrates that same separation of culture and image that Debord discusses in Chapter 1. However, Baudrillards reference is aimed at the propogandized image that creates a form of complicity with global image and hence global ideology. By being complicit with this the spectacular imagery of global media Baby Kochamma, the middle class consumer, is coerced into recognising and thus legitimizing the ideologies and binarisms of nationhood, Communism, Americanism or religious subjectivity through what Homi K. Bhaba describes as the metaphoricity [(1994, 34)] of power. This mediated power has resulted in what Franz Fanon describes as: the historical result of the incapacity of the national middle class to rationalize popular action, that is to say their incapacity to see into the reasons for that action [(1963, 119)]. In the context of emancipating the subaltern, it is clear that, as with the Western Episteme, the subaltern does not feature as part of this politicised global imagery and is therefore non-existent in the life of Baby Kochamma as a result. Finally, Roys postmodern non-linear narrative is structured to specifically reflect the impact of dominance over the life-span of her characters but without reference to a clear time frame. The effect of which, as a reading experience, is intended to separate the relationship between text and author whereby the reader is forced to construct their own version of events. According to Madhu Benoit, in her narratological analysis of Roys novel Circular Time: A study of Narrative Techniques in Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things: The novels fragmentary form both softens and highlights the violent contours of Roys Roman a these. Her deconstructionist tactics force

Tristan Keeble

30

the reader to fit the kaleidoscopic pieces together into some sort of coherent whole [(2006, 85)]. By fitting the kaleidoscopic pieces together the reader is therefore forced into intentionally constructing a version of events that are most applicable to their own imaginative perception. Benoit goes even further explaining that as a result: Reading becomes an act of composition as the reader writes the text through the prism of her/his imaginative perception of the deconstructed doxa [(2006, 85)]. By considering Roys novel as an intervention, that doxa (presumed knowledge) is deconstructed by the reader as part of their own narrativising of events. The big question therefore, is what doxas is Roy deconstructing through her narrative? Which in turn brings us to the question of Roys text as an intervention in the external world. Roys text as an intervention in the external world Bearing in mind that Roys readership would inevitably consist of Westernised middleclass individuals, especially after receiving the Booker prize for literature, it doesnt take a great stretch of the imagination to believe that these were the targets of her anarchic narrative. Her novel, therefore, could be considered a Trojan horse - celebrated by the book-consuming Western middle-classes as well as Western literary institutions for her peculiarly entertaining prose whilst simultaneously admitting to their own complicity in creating the plight of Roys characters all tropes of people existing somewhere in the real world outside of the novel. Julie Mullaney explains how this perception of Roys novel would fit with Graham Huggans critique in The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the margins (2001): Huggan is more disposed to read the ironizing of a currency of nostalgic images in the novel as a strategic exoticism, designed to trap the unwary reader into complicity with the Orientalisms of which the novel so hauntingly relates (my italics) or a meta-exoticism, in the mould of Rushdie, laying bare the ground of its own material production [(2006, 113)].

Tristan Keeble

31

Taking on board Huggans argument it could also be said that Roys novel assisted in introducing her voice and, therefore, her agenda to the world stage (Keeble 2010). Julie Mullaney goes further by explaining that Roy is not the author of her own exoticised image and therefore it is an unfair representation of her as an activist-writer to presume that her image is a tactical construction. However it is worth mentioning that the audience that she is consumed by are, as mentioned earlier, predominantly a middleclass. Huggans view is that Roy she wishes to direct her critique towards the Orientalisms and westernised media images that are consumed by the national middle classes. A middle class who, as Stephanie Benzaquen mentions in her essay Postcolonial aesthetic experience: Thinking in aesthetic categories in the face of catastrophe at the beginning of the twenty-first century (2010): are people who look at actual images of atrocity via aesthetic references, even possibly as aesthetic experience [(Accessed: November 12th 2011)]. Benzaquens words reinforce the notion that the global aesthetic that connects people to a mediated world view is simultaneously the bind that prevents any active emancipation or even presence for those suffering the inequalities of contemporary globalization.

Tristan Keeble

32

Conclusion

One of the most troubling concepts to reach the world stage is this idea that modernity or progress is aimed towards a state of being governed by a set of definitive values, external to a localised setting. What Roy makes clear in her novel is that those aspirational Western values that inform globalisation do in fact result in a fractured connection between members of society at different levels of periphery to a Eurocentric core. The colonized mind is therefore an appropriated frame of view which recognises the West as the centre of both power and knowledge. In order to construct this appropriated gaze, the Western world, through colonial dominance, has separated localised references to symbolic cultural connections as well as appropriated world history. Roy demonstrates the effect of this appropriated gaze on the life of her prepolitical protagonists Estha and Rahel who, as a result, become incapable of creating sufficient agency even within their own families. Roy also represents history as a darkened force in the lives of her characters - who symptomatically begin viewing history as an evil entity pervading their experience of everyday objects and surroundings. Roy also anthropomorphises the notion of epistemic violence into an entity in the form of Pappachis moth, which becomes Rahels allegorical experience of fear as well as Pappachis major source of anger. It is also clear that the political objective at the heart of globalisation is the industrial competition of the West. The value judgments concerning development and modernity are seen by Roy as being the result of a pernicious colonial ghost, represented by Pappachis Moth. What also appears from Roys narrative is that other forms of resistance against globalisation from different quarters, specifically communism are a dubious source of freedom and emancipation from a place that is in a transitional state of dependence to the West. By looking at the objects in Roys fiction what becomes clear is that both culture and humanity is being appropriated for an ideological competition of values. The objects

Tristan Keeble

33

of Roys novel all have specific resonance to her characters and therefore become allegorical representation of their emotions, cultural and political allegiances as well as material based capital. For Roys middle-class Christian character Baby Kochamma, her political allegiance is represented through her rosary which she uses to purge herself of a communist threat. Velutha, the subaltern Paravan, is however a malleable political instrument for whoever offers him meagre freedoms and thus becomes a political object himself. Rahels watch is representative of that belated enlightenment subject and indicative of the state of transition that exists in her world. Finally, Mammachis pickle business represents a source creating meaning for her and her family. As soon as the business is labelled Paradise Pickles both Mammachi and her business are appropriated for political objectives and thus become objects for the accumulation of capital and credit. Finally, Roy uses Velutha to demonstrate how those segregated from society through being lower caste individuals are a vital source of knowledge in the process of decolonisation. This is because they were invisible to the colonial gaze and therefore the least effected by the presence of colonialism and thus maintain some vestige of their precolonial social system. They are, however, invisible to the middle-class bourgeoisie as a result. Roys use of language is fundamentally anarchic as she re-inscribes the canonised lexicon of colonial English. In so doing she reveals how a language can be appropriated by the polyglocy of colonial subjects and therefore made accessible as a source of anarchic dissidence and/or emancipation. Through her use of imagery she also demonstrates how the unreality of a televised event through global media coerces and coopts the middle class into embracing a Eurocentric gaze. Roy also reveals the effect of this Euro-American-centric gaze has resulted in a distraction as well as an addition to the plight of the subalterns or as Franz Fanon referred to it: the inability for the national middle class to rationalise any such action as to assist in the emancipation of the subaltern.

Tristan Keeble

34

Finally, external to Roys text, her book consuming public are themselves the subject of her critique inadvertently. As Huggan has suggested, her exoticised media image may well contribute to the Orientalisms that exist within her text, thereby trapping the unwary reader into a self-reflexive experience of recognising their own complicity with that Eurocentric gaze.

Tristan Keeble

35

Bibliography
Primary Resources Roy, A,.(1997).The God of Small Things. United Kingdom: Flamingo Secondary Resources Dorit Naaman,.(2000). Woman/nation: A postcolonial look at female subjectivity, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 17:4, 333-342 Raju P.T,.(1951). Existence: an Epistemological Study: Philosophy and

Phenomenological Research. Vol.12. No. 2 (Dec. 1951), pp265-277 Spivak, G,.(2008).The New Subaltern: A silent interview. In: The Culture Studies Reader (3rd ed) London Routledge Galvan-Alvarez, Enrique (2010) Epistemic Violence and Retaliation: American Studies. 32.2 (December 2010): 1126 ISSN 0210-6124 Bhaba. H. K,. (1994). The Location of Culture, United Kingdom: Routledge Fanon, F,.(1963). The Wretched of the Earth, United Kingdom: Penguin Aijaz, A,.(1992). In Theory, London: Verso Said, E,.(1993). Culture and imperialism, London: Vintage The Issue of

Knowledges in Mother India: ATLANTIS. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-

Tristan Keeble

36

Said, E,.(2003). Orientalism, London: Penguin Baudrillard, J,.(1996). The System of Objects, London: Verso Csiksentmihalyi, M & Rochberg-Halton, E,. (1981).The Meaning of Things: Domestic symbols and the self, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Goldberg, D. T & Quayson, A,.(2002).Relocating Postcolonialism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Stones, R,.(2008). Key Sociological Thinkers (2nd Ed).Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Benjamin, W,. (1999).Illuminations. London: Pimlico Soanes, C,.(2006).Compact Oxford English Dictionary for Students.Oxford: Oxford University Press Nien-Ming Chien, E,.(2004).Wierd English (South Asian Ed.). New Delhi: Foundation Books Pvt.. Ltd. Debord, G,.(2009).Society of the Spectacle, Sussex: Soul Bay Press Boehmer, E,.(2010).A postcolonial aesthetic: repeating upon the present. In: Wilson,J.., Sandru, C. & Lawson Welsh, S. (eds.) Rerouting the postcolonial: new directions for the new millennium. London: Routledge. pp.170-81. Smith, S.(1994).Darkening English: Post Imperial Contestations in the Language of Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott: English, 43(175): pp.39-55 doi: 10.1093/English/43.175.39

Tristan Keeble

37

Benzaquen, S,.(2010). Postcolonial aesthetic experience: Thinking in aesthetic categories in the face of catastrophe at the beginning of the twenty-first century. European Congress of Aesthetics (November 10-12th 2010), [online] Available: http://web.uam.es /otros/estetica/DOCUMENTOS%20EN%20PDF [Accessed: November 12th 2011]. Mullaney, J,.(2006). Globalizing dissent? Arundhati Roy, Local and Postcolonial Feminism in the Transnational Economy. In: Prasad, M (ed) Arundhati Roy: Critical Perspectives: pp.110-25. Delhi: Pencraft International Tickell, A,.(2006).The God Of Small Things: Arundhati Roys postcolonial Cosmopolitanism: In: Prasad, M (ed) Arundhati Roy: Critical Perspectives: pp.59-76. Delhi: Pencraft International Campbell-Hall,D,.(2006). Dangerous Artisans: Anarchic Labour in Michael Ondaatjes The English Patient and Anils Ghost and Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things. In: Prasad, M (ed) Arundhati Roy: Critical Perspectives: pp.44-58. Delhi: Pencraft International Benoit,M,.(2006). Circular Time: A study of Narrative Techniques in Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things. In: Prasad, M (ed) Arundhati Roy: Critical Perspectives: pp.7786. Delhi: Pencraft International Roy, A,.(2012).Not Again [online]. Avaiable: /STEPHANIE%20BENZAQUEN.pdf

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~peer/arundhatiRoy.html. [Accessed: May 3rd 2012].

Tristan Keeble

38

IBNLive,.(2012).Milk man of India Dr Verghese Kurien turns 90. [online].Available: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/milk-man-of-india-dr-verghese-kurien-turns-90/206065-3.html [Accessed: March 12th 2012].

Tristan Keeble

39