Contrastive Portrayal of Global South in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy and Aravind Adiga
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The East-West binary, once seemingly defined by the Cold War's stark opposition, now manifests in a fragmented landscape of proxy conflicts like Syria, Ukraine, and Israel. Amidst this pro-West and anti-West narrative, the Global South remains largely unheard, its diverse voices silenced and its struggles obscured by the clash of superpowers. This paper argues that Arundhati Roy and Aravind Adiga, through their literary works, provide a crucial counterpoint to this simplified narrative, offering a platform for subaltern voices from the Global South to be heard and understood. For instance, Roy's The God of Small Things exposes the devastating impact of neo-colonial development projects on Kerala's marginalized communities, mirroring real-life conflicts. Parallelly, Adiga’s The White Tiger offers a scathing critique of economic inequality and the exploitation of India's underclass, influenced by the neoliberal economic model, highlighting their struggles for upward mobility within a rigged system. This paper is not just only about portraying marginalized narratives but it attempts to analyze and understand the impact of the hegemonic discourse of counter-narrative of the East-West conflict of the superpowers on the suppressed entities of Global southern communities. Applying Dependency theory in contrast with Post Development theory to the literary works of these two authors, it is to be verified here that the way Global South is exploited, oppressed, and remains unheard in the conflict of capitalist and autocratic superpowers. Focusing on two authors and a limited selection of works inherently limits this analysis of the vast and diverse Global South. While insightful, their narratives cannot encompass all voices and experiences within this region.
Source: Figshare
Authors: Medhavi, Prakhar, Sahay, Dr. Vikash Mohan
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6902351820
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