Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this guide to Roy's novel offers an introduction to the text and contexts of The God of Small Things. It also presents a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text. It is aimed at those beginning detailed study of The God of Small Things.
The book offers an innovative interdisciplinary analysis of terrorism and insurgency within the context of colonial India, focusing on pivotal events in British colonial history. Key moments such as the 'Black Hole' of Calcutta, the anti-thug campaigns, the 1857 Rebellion, and the Amritsar massacre are examined to illustrate how the threat of violence shaped the interactions between colonizers and the colonized. Through this exploration, it redefines the political aesthetics of empire and highlights the complex dynamics of power during these crises.
This collection offers an essential, structured survey of contemporary fictions of South Asia in English, and includes specially commissioned chapters on each of the national traditions of the region. It covers less well known writings from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well as the more firmly established canon of contemporary Indian literature, and features chapters on important new and emergent forms such as the graphic novel, genre fiction and the short story. It also contextualizes some key ‘transformative’ aspects of recent fiction such as border and diaspora identities; new middle-class narratives and popular genres; and literary response to terror and conflict. Edited and designed with researchers and students in mind, the book updates existing criticism and represents a readable guide to a dynamic, rapidly changing area of global literature.