scholarly journals Re-creating the hybrid text: postcolonial Indian writings and the European scene

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Snell-Hornby
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Chinua Achebe ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Hybrid Texts ◽  
Mixed Blessing ◽  
Small Things ◽  
International English ◽  
Target Culture

For a language with a wealth of great literature such as English, globaliza-tion has been a mixed blessing. The International English of Mc World is a poor descendant of the language of Shakespeare and Dickens. On the other hand, English literature has been tremendously enriched by writings from the former colonies of the British Empire, creating their own ‘norms’ of English – ‘a new English’, as Chinua Achebe famously put it, “still in full communion with its ancestral home, but altered to suit its new surroundings ”. In the postcolonial literary scene, such ‘hybrid’ texts – or ‘métissés ’– are now a familiar feature, but a complicated one for translators working into other European languages. This essay concentrates on India, and looking at writings by Sethu (Pandavapuram in English translation) and Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things in English and in German translation), it investigates the striking features of hybrid source texts and the cultural and linguistic problems involved in re-creating them for a European target culture.

scholarly journals Echoes of the Infernal Machine: 1940s French and English Literature of Resistance and Collaboration as a Revolution in the Mythic Imagination

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-246
Author(s):  
Tadd Graham Fernée
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Vichy Regime ◽  
French And English ◽  
Under The Volcano ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Second World ◽  
Mythic Imagination

This article comparatively examines French and English literature based on two novels published in 1947, Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano and Jean-Louis Curtis’ The Forests of Night. Both novels employ the mythic device to construct narratives on the twilight of the British Empire and the German occupied French Vichy regime, respectively, depicting experiences of resistance and collaboration on the eve of and during the Second World War. Both invent a system of symbolic imagery modelled on the Surrealist template in Jean Cocteau’s The Infernal Machine, that turns the classical mythic device still prevalent in the early 20th century (i.e. in Joyce or Eliot) upside down. The revolution in Mythic Imagination follows the Structuralist Revolution initiated by Durkheim, Saussure and Bachelard, evacuating fixed ontological architecture to portray relational interdependency without essence. These novels pursue overlapping ethical investigations, on “non-interventionism” in Lowry and “fraternity” in Curtis. The novels raise questions about the relation between colonialism and fascism and the impact of non-Western mythic universes (i.e. Hinduism) upon the Mythic Imagination. They have implications for our understanding of gender relations, as well as the value of political activism and progress.

scholarly journals Intermingling of History and Politics in The God of Small Things

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Md. Abdul Momen Sarker ◽  
Md. Mominur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democratic Election ◽  
Small Things ◽  
First Time

Suzanna Arundhati Roy is a post-modern sub-continental writer famous for her first novel The God of Small Things. This novel tells us the story of Ammu who is the mother of Rahel and Estha. Through the story of Ammu, the novel depicts the socio-political condition of Kerala from the late 1960s and early 1990s. The novel is about Indian culture and Hinduism is the main religion of India. One of the protagonists of this novel, Velutha, is from a low-caste community representing the dalit caste. Apart from those, between the late 1960s and early 1990s, a lot of movements took place in the history of Kerala. The Naxalites Movement is imperative amid them. Kerala is the place where communism was established for the first time in the history of the world through democratic election. Some vital issues of feminism have been brought into focus through the portrayal of the character, Ammu. In a word, this paper tends to show how Arundhati Roy has successfully manifested the multifarious as well as simultaneous influences of politics in the context of history and how those affected the lives of the marginalized. Overall, it would minutely show how historical incidents and political ups and downs go hand in hand during the political upheavals of a state.

Telling the Traumas of History

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Lipson Freed
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Distortions ◽  
Leslie Marmon Silko ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Small Things ◽  
The Third Person

Focusing on the novels Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko, and The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, Chapter 2 uses trauma theory to explore how histories of imperial domination refuse to be confined to the past. These two novels invite readers to identify to varying degrees with their traumatized protagonists, holding out the possibility of a resistant and revisionary “history from below.” Ultimately, however, a careful analysis of these two works reveals how literary trauma theorists, in their eagerness to give voice to the voiceless, are too readily taken in by the imaginative construct of the third-person narrator. While individual characters in these novels may suffer the cognitive distortions of trauma, the fragmentary, non-linear account that their readers receive is, in both cases, mediated by the presence of a narrator whose choices are conscious, volitional, and strategic.

scholarly journals Social and Physical Entrapments of Women in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arfan Lodhi ◽  
Faiza Khalid ◽  
Iqbal Mehmood ◽  
Faiz Rasool ◽  
Farhan Akbar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Bapsi Sidhwa ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
The Social ◽  
Small Things ◽  
Different Cultures

The study highlights the social and physical entrapments of women in two novels: Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Both writers belong to two different cultures. Bapsi Sidhwa is a Punjabi, Parsi, Pakistani novelist while Arundhati Roy is an Indian Author. Regardless of their different cultures, they have discussed similar issues faced by women of their contemporary societies. This case study adopted exploratory research framework to gather data and undergo its content analysis from the text of two selected novels. The findings explicate that woman exploitation can be observed evidently among different societies irrespective of any culture, religion, caste or creed. In both novels, women are represented as shallow creatures and they are utterly victimized physically as well as emotionally. They are raped and beaten brutally by males being their unbidden masters. Sidhwa and Roy enlighten the plight of women in their novels, though slight elements of unjust maltreatment of the male characters can also be seen at many places.

scholarly journals Sensibility of the Novel “The God of Small Things” Personifies Realities where Meaning Plays the Protagonist

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
Imam Alam Khan
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Small Things ◽  
Local Languages

<p><em>The novel, “The God of Small Things”, is a Booker Prize winner fiction. It is obviously a thought-provoking novel with an apparent viewpoint. It is</em><em> </em><em>a novel by Arundhati Roy, an Indian</em><em> </em><em>writer. The novel is a story of stories where conflicting ideas of various subjects play vital roles. The subjects appear to be really striking. The style is marvelous. The plot construction is excellent, and the characterization is superb. Language is unique. It’s a worldwide acclaimed novel. The novel speaks on subjects like love, madness, joy, cast-discrimination, women’s exploitation and most importantly the conflict between the Laltain (lantern), the big people, and Mombatti (candles), the small people, which represent the class antagonism. All these antagonisms transform into a meaning. The novelist projects so many meanings together and tries to weave a story on Ammu, the protagonist of the novel. She has created a world where the readers feel the conflict between the social antagonisms and emotional meanings.</em><em> </em><em>The novelist, Arundhati</em><em> </em><em>Roy, has tried her best to evolve a literal as well as a figurative meaning of emotions. The readers feel spellbound emotions when they start reading the novel and pass through the strong throng until they finish the novel. The novelist succeeds in making her readers feel a trance. They emotionally find themselves in a pang of emotions which remains until the end of the novel. Though the novel is full of many obscurities where the readers fail to understand the obscure images and local languages in the novel, yet they feel satisfaction at the end as it discusses sensibility of the society.</em><em> </em><em>The reality apparently transforms itself into a crystal clear meaning of life which is very vital to the novelist as well as to the readers. The meaning of life, reality, appears like a protagonist. Hence, the novel under research is under scrutiny about the idea of reality appearing like protagonist.</em><em> </em><em>It is undoubtedly a very successful novel. Readers have liked it very much. The critics have found it interesting. It has been the best seller, too. Thus, this research is trying to find out the answer of the question, Is</em><em> </em><em>the novel really successful in arousing a sensibility? Is the meaning of life appears life-like? Does it personify reality of life? Consequently, this research paper has tried to find out the answers for the posted queries. </em><em>Moreover</em><em>, the obvious answer is, yes it does. It personifies the realities of the tragedies of the protagonists: Ammu and Velutha.</em></p>

scholarly journals ÍNDIA: O UNIVERSO DO DEUS DAS PEQUENAS COISAS E SUA LITERATURA

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana Moura Colucci de Camargo
Keyword(s):  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Small Things

Este artigo é um breve panorama da tradição da literatura indiana realizado com o objetivo de apresentar a autora indiana Arundhati Roy (1961) e sua obra The God of Small Things (1997), na qual ficção e episódios históricos, relativos às conseqüências da colonização inglesa na Índia, mesclam-se em um universo histórico-literário híbrido, composto de elementos da cultura oriental e da ocidental.Palavras-chave: The God of Small Things; Arundhati Roy; Hibridismo; Oriente; Ocidente.

scholarly journals O espaço liminar das listas em romances em inglês

Scripta ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (44) ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá
Keyword(s):  
Robert Kroetsch ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Georg Lukacs ◽  
Small Things ◽  
Waiting For The Barbarians ◽  
Georg Lukács

A esperança, a imagem e a resposta utópicas discutidas por Terry Eagleton e Georg Lukács se tornam evidentes em The studhorse man de Robert Kroetsch, Waiting for the barbarians de J. M. Coetzee, The god of small things de Arundhati Roy e City of god de E. L. Doctorow na maneira que os conflitos são, se não resolvidos, pelo menos revestidos de uma aparência insólita nas coisas e objetos inventariados em listas. Proponho pensar como as listas nos referidos romances participam na ruptura da linguagem, no colapso da narrativa, no confronto de perspectivas, na fragilidade do valor e na vacuidade de sentido. Estes romances em inglês tendem a nos dar um tipo de atalho na percepção por meio do uso de listas, enumerações e inventários, os quais suspendem a linguagem, a narrativa, a subjetividade, o valor e o sentido, em sua confusa voracidade e infinidade.

scholarly journals Conflict and its Manifestations in Achebe's "Arrow of God"

Afrika Focus ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen G. Mordaunt
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Chinua Achebe ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Personal Conflict ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
High Age ◽  
Missionary School ◽  
The Village ◽  
New Religion

Mordaunt describes how the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe deals with the problem of personal conflict in his novel "Arrow of God". The main character in this novel is Ezeulu, who is chiefpriest of the god Ulu, of the village of Umuaro. Ezeulu comes into conflict with himself in a quest to hold on to power despite his high age and the break-through of the British colonial administrators. Ezeulu wants to control both his people and the British administrators. Ezeulu believes the clan will silently follow him and the British will respect him. Hereto he sends his son to the white man's missionary school where the boy adopts the new religion and sacrileges his own. Ezeulu will not punish him despite the wishes of the clan. Achebe's novel shows that men cannot fight societies' will and that the latter can bring a man to insanity. KEYWORDS: English literature, Literature, Nigeria, Psychology.  

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