From Feminine Autobiography to Collective Allegory: Arundhati Roy’s Sensory Writing in the Perspective of Phenomenology of Perception
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/m6jtqn31Keywords:
Autobiography, allegory, phenomenology of perception, Merleau-Ponty.Abstract
This study aims to explore the narrative tension between authenticity and fictionality in The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by examining Roy’s formative experiences and writing process as described in Mother Mary Comes to Me. The theoretical framework employs Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, supplemented by postmodern developments derived from phenomenological theory, to analyze the sensory experiences of key characters across childhood, youth, and adulthood. By focusing on core plot lines and pivotal events, the study investigates how Roy bridges sensory writing to transition from superficial personal memoir to collective allegory.
Downloads
References
[1] Jameson, F. (1986). Third world literature in the era of multinational capitalism. Social Text, (15), 65 88. https://doi.org/10.2307/466493
[2] Ahmad, A. (1992). In theory: Classes, nations, literatures. Verso.
[3] Rani, S. (2025). Ecofeminism in Arundhati Roy’s the God of Small Things and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and Gun Island. International Journal of Research in English, 7(1), 143 147.
[4] Lodhi, M., et al. (2019). Social and physical entrapments of women in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. English Language and Literature Studies, 9(2), 57.
[5] Neumann, B. (2023). An ocean of languages? Multilingualism in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 58(3), 593 609.
[6] Essa, L. (2021). Of other spaces and other’s memories: Reading graveyards in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Regina Scheer’s Machandel. Comparative Literature Studies, 58(4), 744 779.
[7] Roy, A. (2017). The god of small things. 4th Estate.
[8] Merleau Ponty, M. (1968). The visible and the invisible. Northwestern University PressUW-Madison....
[9] van Campen, C. (2014). The Proust effect: The senses as doorways to lost memories. Oxford University Press.
[10] Roy, A. (2025). Mother Mary comes to me. Simon & Schuster.
[11] Roy, A. (2018). The ministry of utmost happiness. Penguin Books.
[12] Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519 531. https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893
[13] Ricœur, P. (1992). Oneself as another. University of Chicago Press, 113 168.
[14] Merleau Ponty, M. (2005). Phenomenology of perception. Routledge.
[15] Marcus, L. (1994). Auto/biographical discourses: Criticism, theory, practice. Manchester University Press, 210 220.
[16] Smith, S., & Watson, J. (2010). Reading autobiography: A guide for interpreting life narratives. University of Minnesota Press.
[17] Bose, S., & Jalal, A. (2021). Kashmir and the future of South Asia. Routledge.
[18] Barthes, R. (2010). Camera lucida. Macmillan.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
