In The God of Small Things, Roy ingeniously exposes and denounces the politics of the subaltern through questions of corporeality gender and race positioning. She does so, however, in a way that escapes facile dichotomous divisions and obvious essentialist oppositions. At the core of her critique is a social and cultural system that not only stifles individual freedom and social mobility but also, and above all, represses the expressions of the body and the discourses of desire. Arundhati Roy successfully builds a narrative that focuses on bodily encounters that defy authoritative discourses and function as frontiers of cultural and social contacts. “Edges, Borders, Boundaries, Brinks and Limits” (Rao, Pg. 5) are depicted as loci devised by a web of socio-historical relations that the narrative undermines and revises. Roy’s characters, both male and female, and their various forms of displacement, question the cultural inscriptions of the ‘disembodied’ body, thus giving evidence to the permeability of the corporeal entities that are inevitably socially regulated. The maltreatment of the subaltern is one of the major issues in the novel. The term ‘subaltern’ was popularized by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist in the 1920s and 1930s as a surrogate for the term ‘proletarian class’ in order to counter Fascism. In India, the term was catapulted by the Subaltern Studies Collective writing in 1982 on Southern Asian history and society from a ‘subaltern perspective’. In the preface to Subaltern Studies, Volume I, Ranjit Guha propounded a working definition of ‘subaltern’. “The word subaltern…stands for the meaning as given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary that is of inferior rank. It will be used as a name for the general attitude of ... ... middle of paper ... ...tment of the subaltern in her novel triggers the mnemonic of a colonial India. Nevertheless, she urges them to shatter all conventions of the traditional society in order to fetch an identity for themselves. By her treatment of the subaltern, she raises a moot question about their pitiable position in Indian society, but fails in her effort to give them their voice. Works Cited Roy, Arundhati. “The God of Small Things”. Delhi: Random Publishing House. 2008. Print. Guha, Ranjit. “Subaltern Studies: Writings in South Asian History and Society”. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1982. Print. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty; “Can the Subaltern Speak?: Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture”. Chicago: Illinois University Press. 1988. Print. Roy, Amitabh; “The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment”. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishing House. 2005. Print.
There are many instances of irony in the short story "One's a Heifer" by Sinclair
Irony is a literary device deriving from a contradiction between what the reader expects and what really happens. By creating this juxtaposition of expectation versus actuality, the author draws the reader's attention to a specific detail or theme in the story. In this case, Vrba draws attention to the odd, nonsensical preparations for Himmler's visit, and shows how completely aberrant camp life was compared to life on the outside.
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
Irony shown in the resolution is when Ulrich and Georg both think men have come to save them when they see dark silhouettes running in their direction. In reality, once the wolves arrive they eat and kill the men rather than save them as they hope. The author misleads the audience by including many sections in which Ulrich and Georg make up, recognize they must work as a team and agree to provide assistance to each other. Saki guides readers to assume the story will end with Ulrich and Georg helping each other out. Instead, she concludes the story with the men being devoured by wolves, in an ironic, suspenseful, and unpredictable
The first instance of irony used in the story is when the two enemies become friends while trapped in the wilderness together. Ulrich von Gradwitz, “[changes] [his] mind,” and then offers to treat his enemy, Georg Znaeym, “as though [he] were [Ulrich’s] guest” (4). Throughout the short story, Georg and Ulrich go from being people who hate each other because of an ancient rivalry, to
...octor is an obstetrician but cannot save the life of the child. In the three central texts discussed heretofore it has become evident to the reader that irony is used to aid in the representation of an unfortunate event. The study of more short stories could come to show how irony can be used to demonstrate many events that end with different outcomes, whether they are positive or negative as in this case.
“Invitation to Murder” written by Josh Pachter is established on situation irony. The text obtains copious examples of situational irony. The title of this contorted story accommodates situational irony. The title “Invitation to Murder” consists of situational irony; because the twelve men were invited to see a man who was about to die, instead they witnessed an assassination. They were invited to a murder rather than seeing a soon to be soon to be perished man. The title of the text is the most literal for of situational irony.
They two grandfathers, the ones who started the feud are fighting over a piece of forestland. They have decided together that the only way to resolve the feud is to kill each other. While searching for each other in the woods, Gradwitz finds Znaeym. Both men, with rifles in hand, fail to shoot the other. To make matters worse a bolt of lightning strikes and tree and pins both men to the ground. After several times of Gradwitz trying to offer Znaeym wine, both men decide to reconcile. Where’s the irony? Well, the story ends with both men being found by wolves so even though they didn’t kill each other, they still both ended up being
One example of how Poe uses irony is to emphasize Montresor’s dislike for Fortunato. Up until the end of the story (before it was revealed that it was a flashback), Montresor pretended to be Fortunato’s friend. When Montresor was coming up with the plan
He uses different types of irony in his story "The Pardoner's Tale". For example situational irony is shown when the wickedest of the three said " Who would have thought this morning was to be our lucky day", and in fact they all three died later that day. Dramatic irony is displayed when they find the gold and come up with a plan to sneak the gold back to one of the three men's houses. They decide to draw straws and whom ever draws the shortest stick has to go into town and get food and drink. The youngest of the three rioters draws the shortest straw, so he takes off into town. On his way the youngest comes up with a plan to poison two of the three bottles of wine that he plans to purchase. So while in town he goes to an apothecary and buys the best, most fatal poison that he has. Meanwhile the two men guarding the gold have agreed on a plan to attack the youngest and kill him so that they may split the gold among themselves. When the youngest returns the two men fall on him and kill him. After they killed the youngest they decided that killing was thirsty work and chose to take a celebration drink. Unfortunately the bottle they chose to drink was poisoned so they both passed from drinking the toxic beverage. The two murderers got what they deserved and so did the youngest who planned to murder
Irony can be seen in many ways, whether it be situational irony or dramatic irony. Either way, it can set the mood of the story and shows the purpose of what the author is trying to portray. Kate Chopin is famous for irony in many of her stories. It may be a personal experience, or it may be her creative way of writing. From an analytical view of “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, it shows the irony of the son and father worrying about Calixta, Calixta and Alce committing the affair, and the affair helped both of their marriages.
BOSE, Sugata and JALAL Ayesha. Modern South Asia: history, culture, political economy. London, Routledge, 2011
Nicholas B. Dirks. (2011). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton University Press
Dhawan, R.K., "The Goddess of Small Things : Some Observations on the Fictional Technique of Arundhati Roy's First Novel" in Arundhati Roy the Novelist Extraordinary, (Delhi, 1998)
...nial institution--one voice which would articulate their own sense of national identity. But exploration of these societies, and the literature produced by postcolonial authors and poets illustrates that there is a veritable infinite number of differing circumstances inherent in each postcolonial society, and, consequently, in each piece of literature produced by postcolonial writers. If one is to read this literature in a way which will shed some light on the postcolonial condition, one must understand and adopt the theory that we are all walking amalgamations of our own unique cultures and traditions. We are all always struggling with our own identities, personal and national. We must understand that there is no "one true voice" representing an easily identifiable postcolonial condition, but, instead, each author is his or her own voice and must be read as such.