The God of Small Things

Historical and Political
1. Caste
2. Gender
  1. Ammu
    1. Reclaim and reposes a world which marginalizes women
    2. Kochamma's resentment to Ammu 'she saw her quarrelling with a fate that she, Baby kKochamma herself, felt she had graciously accepted'
      1. Families rejection was punishment for attempt to transgress moral + social boundaries
  2. The encounters told by women: Baby Kochamma 'Non-affair' Father Mulligan, Ammu father beating Mammachi, Chacko through Marget, Rahels perception as 7yr old
3. Westernisation
  1. Effect of a globalised media = exemplified by Estha’s Elvis Puff, Baby Kochamma’s satellite television addiction, or The Sound of Music
    1. Chacko’s description of the family’s distance: reminiscent of iconic western films and stories (Hansel and Gretal + Wizard of Oz)
  2. Baby Kochamma obsession with soaps are a familiarity; the dramatized life which she is used to
  3. Post-colonialism
    1. Reference to HOD
      1. colonial culture 'haunting' the novel
      2. Conrad: Criticized moral basis of imperial rule
    2. History house conversion
    3. Democracy = replaced by consumerism (Urich Beck)
      1. A mutant variety of colonialism, only now technologically supported
      2. Helping those who had a head start -(Chacko)
        Epitomizing the rise in trade with 'paradise pickles' - an image of globalization
    4. Rudyard Kipling
      1. By the late 19thC Eng. lit. expanded from the ideas of moral superiority of "Englishness", started to emerge imperialist values
        Colonial work ethic taught in Raj fictions (Kipling)
        The Jungle Book
        Ironic reference
        Dislocating effect of colonialism
        But! Newman reminds us awareness of Shakesp. 'The Tempest' 'Julius Caesar' cultural pretensions of Indian middle class
        Chacko: Anglophiles (admiration) or actual pain of disinheritance
        'We be of one blood'
        Metaphor ='mixed-blood' hybridity like Mowgli the 'man-cub'
4. Modernism Vs Post.
  1. Narrative
    1. 'India lives in several different countries at the same time. Somehow we manage to progress and regress simultaneously'
      1. 'Schizophrenic nature of it' - Consumerism of cell phone, advertising, warehouses + trade and then molesting, burning wives for dowry
    2. Fragmented/temporal/polyphonic narrative voices
      1. Events less shocking =prolepses anticipate
5. Chappu Thomburan "Lord Rubbish" = Living in the rubble of accepted ideas. Following law even if it is old and prevailing. What Roy disagrees with, must secede from her country
6. THE ENDING: on word "tomorrow", wonderful that it happened at all. Feudal nature of their society the fact that it happened at all is a fantastically hopeful thing
  1. Beauty in a world of global development + nuclear proliferation
7. Roy as political activist
  1. India: poor exploited, police bribe seeking + predatory government officials
  2. There are huge political and social upheavals that limit its population
    1. demands they take futures back from "experts" who colonize knowledge for their benefit
  3. 'Radical aesthetic' Armstrong
1. Jameson: - De-construction of expression. - Not interested in moving audience - Isolate the reader. - Technology overrules us
Sexual Transgression
1. Velutha and Ammu
  1. Love laws
    1. Moment of ecapism - abandonment of class + caste
    2. Searching for something past sexual desire
    3. Laws are something ingrained in our very being, subjected by history
    4. Aware fighting a loosing battle, submission - settle for 'small things'
2. Western audience: reaction to affair seems irrational
  1. Analogy by Foucault: 'Silencing + controlling the one who stands apart... lunatic/non-conformist imprisoned/reasoned'
3. "Utopic transgression": 'dismisses constituted field of politics as irrelevant/bad faith' - Bose

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	Criado por hattiejordan mais de 10 anos atrás