Arundhati Roy’s New Perspective in ‘the God of Small Things’

Arundhati Roy’s New Perspective in ‘The God of Small Things’
                              By
                            A.Usha
Indian English Literature has a relatively recent history, it is only one and a half centuries old. Indian writing in English has undoubtedly acquired its own independent identity. It no more remains mere imitative and derivative. Its long journey from colonial to post-colonial, from imperial to democratic and from English to Hinglish forms a remarkable chapter in the history of world literature.
Indian English Literature in its early stages was influenced by the Western art form of the novel. Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience which was essentially Indian.
In recent times there has been an increasing interest in rethinking fictions written in the modernist period from a post-colonial perspective - that is to make a post-colonial reading of a text in order to outline the effects of colonization on both the centre of empire and the margins, and reveal how such a text either openly or unwittingly exhibits colonial ideologies

Creative writing in English is considered an integral part of the literary traditions in South Asia. Indeed, according to the words of an Indian critic Iyengar three decades ago, quoted by Kachru, there seems to be an acceptance of Indian English literature as "one of the voices in which India speaks...it is a new voice, no doubt, but it is as much Indian as the others" (Kachru 1994:528-529). Sanyal claims, too, that Indian writing represents a new form of Indian culture. It has become assimilated and is today a dynamic element of the culture (Sanyal 1987: 7).
In recent years the Indian English literature attempts to present the different genres of Indian writing in English. It aims at tracing its distinctive features, such as cultural alienation, romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism etc. Among the latest writers, one of the notable Indian...