Abstract
80
Indu MY
“The Emperor Goes Naked”: The God of Small Things and
its Politics of Questioning the Givens
Abstract
Arundhati
Roy’s Booker Prize winning novel has been discussed time and again in literary
circles worldwide for myriad reasons. In this paper I intend to look at the act
of ‘questioning’ itself that runs throughout the novel. Roy’s portrayal of
Ayemenem, a small village in middle Kerala has been the centre of
political/social discussions within the State itself. The work undoubtedly
created havoc among the believers/followers of different
political/religious/cultural institutions. Here, I try to locate the ways in
which Roy questions and disrupts/deconstructs the ‘givens’ of the society. In a
way, she closely follows the inhabitants of a village where people belong to
different religious/political/caste/class categories. The ‘differences’ between
people are what matters in this small village. Institutions like Christianity
and Communism, which ideologically follow egalitarian principles, fail to stand
their ground while facing Roy’s questions. Her enquiries into the cultural
imprints of a society finally bring out a bleak picture. Through her novel, Roy
does not hesitate to proclaim the naked king ‘naked’.
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