Reclaim and reposes
a world which
marginalizes women
Kochamma's resentment to Ammu 'she saw her quarrelling with a fate
that she, Baby kKochamma herself, felt she had graciously accepted'
Families rejection was punishment for
attempt to transgress moral + social
boundaries
The encounters told by women: Baby
Kochamma 'Non-affair' Father Mulligan,
Ammu father beating Mammachi,
Chacko through Marget, Rahels
perception as 7yr old
Westernisation
Effect of a globalised media = exemplified by
Estha’s Elvis Puff, Baby Kochamma’s satellite
television addiction, or The Sound of Music
Chacko’s description of the family’s distance: reminiscent of iconic western films and stories (Hansel
and Gretal + Wizard of Oz)
Baby Kochamma obsession with soaps are a
familiarity; the dramatized life which she is used
to
Post-colonialism
Reference to HOD
colonial culture 'haunting' the novel
Conrad: Criticized moral basis of
imperial rule
History house conversion
Democracy = replaced by consumerism
(Urich Beck)
A mutant variety of colonialism, only now technologically supported
Helping those who had a head start -(Chacko)
Epitomizing the rise in trade with 'paradise pickles' - an image of
globalization
Rudyard Kipling
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'
Modernism Vs Post.
Narrative
'India lives in several different countries at the
same time. Somehow we manage to progress
and regress simultaneously'
'Schizophrenic nature of it' -
Consumerism of cell phone,
advertising, warehouses + trade
and then molesting, burning wives
for dowry
Fragmented/temporal/polyphonic narrative voices
Events less shocking =prolepses anticipate
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
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
Beauty in a world of global development + nuclear proliferation
Roy as political activist
India: poor exploited, police bribe seeking
+ predatory government officials
There are huge political and social upheavals that limit its population
demands they take futures back from
"experts" who colonize knowledge for their benefit
'Radical aesthetic' Armstrong
Jameson: - De-construction
of expression. - Not
interested in moving
audience - Isolate the reader.
- Technology overrules us
Sexual Transgression
Velutha and Ammu
Love laws
Moment of ecapism
- abandonment of
class + caste
Searching for
something past
sexual desire
Laws are something ingrained in our
very being, subjected by history
Aware fighting a loosing battle,
submission - settle for 'small things'
Western audience: reaction to affair
seems irrational
Analogy by Foucault: 'Silencing + controlling the one who
stands apart... lunatic/non-conformist imprisoned/reasoned'
"Utopic transgression": 'dismisses constituted
field of politics as irrelevant/bad faith' - Bose