Menozzi, F (2018) “Too Much Blood for Good Literature”: Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and the Question of Realism. Journal of Postcolonial Writing. ISSN 1744-9855

Preview

Text “Too Much Blood for Good Literature” Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and the Question of Realism.pdf - Accepted Version Download (723kB) | Preview

Abstract

Arundhati Roy’s nonfictional writing has been interpreted as the epitome of an emerging “realist impulse” at the heart of postcolonial literature since 2000, and a move away from the reflexive and metaphorical style of her first novel, The God of Small Things. This article reassesses the opposition between fictional and nonfictional writing by addressing Roy’s second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017). Rather than endorsing a concept of realism understood as transparent, documentary representation of reality, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness proposes a contradictory and digressive poetics whereby fictional and nonfictional elements coexist. Roy’s critical stance on realism encompasses both her commitment to engage with contemporary history and her questioning of literature’s ability to do justice to suffering. Accordingly, Roy’s second novel reframes the literary concept of realism as an “aesthetic of the inconsolable” aiming to address what is left over from nonfictional accounts of politics and history.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Postcolonial Writing on 25 Sep 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17449855.2018.1507919
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2005 Literary Studies
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Divisions:	Humanities & Social Science
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Date Deposited:	19 Sep 2018 10:50
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 10:06
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/17449855.2018.1507919
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9266

View Item